


A second life worth living

by DesdemonaSunrise



Category: Naruto
Genre: A sprinkling of crack, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, But only where necessary, Canon-Typical Violence, Did I mention Family Feels, Family Feels, Female Protagonist, Fix-It of Sorts, Fuuinjutsu, Gen, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Non-gratuitous angst you might say, POV Alternating, POV Multiple, Sealing shenanigans, Shit still goes terribly wrong because reasons, Survivor Guilt, The Author Regrets Nothing, Time travel shenanigans (technically), bamf uzumaki, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:20:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 31,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28273764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesdemonaSunrise/pseuds/DesdemonaSunrise
Summary: An Uzumaki adrift in time since the Second Shinobi War has best laid plans spinning out of control, and it turns out second chances don't come cheap.
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Comments: 16
Kudos: 29





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Partly a fix-it fic, partly an exploration of the ideas 'so how dark would the Naruto world be if not shounen-ified?' and 'seriously how did Sarutobi let Danzo ruin everything for years without getting fed up?' and a whole lot of 'so seals and Uzumaki are really OP, gotcha'. 
> 
> Trying to figure out the timeline of the Narutoverse made my head hurt and some of it needed to be corrected to make any sense (looking at you, Kakashi's graduation). I have a pretty detailed timeline and chapter outline just to keep track of it all (it's a 9,000 word document, help), but if you do spot anything that doesn't make sense within the timeline established by this story, please let me know. 
> 
> Disclaimer: no copyright infringement intended. I do not own _Naruto_.  
> Second disclaimer: I haven't watched _Boruto_ and don't plan to, so anything revealed in there relevant to the main Narutoverse is ignored.

**Kohaku I**

'Good morning,' I chirped pleasantly as my handler closed the heavy metal door behind him. I stood from where I had been meditating on the rug, curling my toes into the fabric as I bowed with a smile.

I didn't know what to think about my latest quarters. My cell looked like a normal room – bed, bookcase, armchair. I even had a fake plant and a small ensuite. I almost felt like a psychiatric patient in my studiously magnolia room, albeit one that also had a one-way mirror and a metal table bolted to the floor.

'Good morning to you, too. I brought breakfast,' the completely unremarkable brown-haired man responded politely as he set down the tray.

In the beginning, all my interrogators had been masked Anbu. Trained to have the same mannerisms, it had taken me some time to start telling them apart. I wasn't sure why I had been moved to a new cell – and I didn't just mean new for me, as it had still smelled a bit of paint – or why the routine had changed from repeated questions and punishment when they were dissatisfied with my answers to... whatever this was.

Now, we spoke like good old chums sharing stories over a pot of tea. He – he said his name was Hito – asked me questions, but trying to ask things in turn didn't result in immediate punishment, only a quiet admonishment that it wasn't ”time for that yet”.

'Thank you,' I said as I sat down and began to eat. The food wasn't bad and Hito usually let me finish before starting his questions.

'So, how are we feeling today?' He asked with a bland smile once I had finished my meal.

'A bit restless. Hence the meditation,' I informed him, casually twirling my chopsticks before setting them down. We both ignored the clang of my chakra suppression cuffs against the table.

'Understandable. Why don't we get started then? Let's begin with how you got here.'

The same opening question as always. I was sick of hearing it, had to grit my teeth to keep the frustration in.

'I woke up encased in a stone coffin with severe chakra exhaustion. I managed to pry my way free and made my way back to the Village, which had clearly been abandoned for many years,' I recited. I had said this so many times, it didn't even hurt anymore. It was like hearing the story of a stranger, perhaps from an old lady with a face crossed with laugh lines and scars who spoke of tragedies so far removed from the present they might as well have been fictional. Something she could have read in a book, once.

Hito leaned back in his seat, a mildly thoughtful look on his face. 'And then?'

'I tried to uncover what clues I could about what had happened. Many records were untouched as the underground tunnels had been ignored or overlooked. I was able to determine that the Village had been destroyed by an overwhelming force of primarily Kiri-nin shortly after my last clear memory.'

'Which is?'

'Running through the forests of Fire Country, returning at speed after a successful mission. I had just reached the coast, then the memory fades.'

I had revisited _that_ memory so many times, it almost felt like I _had_ made it up. For the briefest moments, when the self-doubt the relentless disbelief of their questions caused was at its worst, I questioned it. A glimpse of the beach through a gap in the treeline, the lightest scent of saltwater on the air, and then – nothing. It disappeared like a dream after waking as soon as I tried to remember landing on that beach, crossing the water or arriving home. I started to wonder whether it was a fabrication. But only for a moment. I would not let them convince me I didn't know who I was. I knew _exactly_ who I was. I did, I did. I swore I did.

'I see. And what--'

He was abruptly cut off by the sound of the door opening. In strode a tall blond man with an unnervingly focused and pupil-less blue gaze. He turned to Hito. 'You are relieved.'

Hito stared at the intruder blankly and then stood and left without a word. He didn't even slam the door, despite how clearly he had just been humiliated and dismissed.

My newest visitor eyed me for a few moments before taking a seat, posture relaxed. With one elbow on the arm of his chair and his chin in his hand, he examined me thoroughly.

'What just happened?' I asked him, and he smiled, amused. My new interrogator had a much more natural smile.

'The powers that be took forever to decide what to do with you,' he confessed, the wry smirk still lingering as he spoke. 'First they went black bag, and now this good guy routine. Seeing as traditional interrogation isn't getting anywhere, I've been brought in.'

I didn't know what to say to that, so I stayed silent and waited. The implication that he was a specialist in _non-traditional_ interrogation didn't seem to be some kind of threat, but it made me wary nonetheless.

'Right, let's start this all again. My name is Yamanaka Inoichi. And you are?' He sat up straight and leant folded arms on the table, attentive but not crowding me.

'My name is Uzumaki Kohaku,' I told him, and Inoichi smiled again.

'Well Kohaku-san, it is nice to meet you. I'd like to try something different to asking you the same questions and expecting a different answer.'

'Alright,' I agreed cautiously, filing away my observation about how nice he was being with me and expecting his behaviour to turn vicious at some point. Even though I knew this tactic, I also knew some of what he was doing was already working. He had addressed me by my name. He had acknowledged who I said I was, when every person I had previously seen had refused to do so.

It took a lot of willpower not to flinch when he moved behind me and his fingertips touched my left temple.

'I can't really tell you how this works,' he spoke casually as I braced myself for pain. 'But we are going to be examining your memories. Let's start with you waking up – think of the exact moment you started regaining consciousness. What did you feel, what could you sense?'

I was too confused to speak for a few seconds. _What_? 'Should I be saying this out loud? Like a report?'

'If it helps, certainly,' Inoichi replied.

It couldn't hurt to cooperate at this point, and he had his hand just gently holding my head in place as he waited.

'The first thing I noticed was chakra exhaustion to the point of nausea. At first, I thought that was why I was cold as well, but then I woke up enough to realise I was lying on a cold surface. It was a damp cold, like I was in a deep cave. When I opened my eyes, it was pitch black. I could tell I was in a small space because my breaths were echoing. I began testing my limbs and muscles, checking I wasn't injured. I didn't seem hurt, just very weak, so I concluded I must have been unconscious a while and hadn't eaten.'

Inoichi tapped the side of my head gently. 'Be honest,' he chided me.

I bit my lip, fear tightening my spine. I had nothing to lose – except my dignity.

'I was terrified. I was dizzy, panicked. I woke up like from a deep nightmare and smacked my head on the rock. I tried to blast my way out but my chakra was too unstable to hold any form. I had to pull and claw the top off slowly.'

'Open your eyes,' Inoichi instructed quietly.

I started, unaware I had closed them. An intense feeling of deja vu overwhelmed me I was confronted with a pitch black like I had just been speaking about. I heard clothing rustle next to me, and stood stock still.

I was standing. Standing? Hadn't I been sitting?

'Try to stay calm, we are in your memory,' Inoichi spoke up to my right.

What the _fuck_. My mind blanked. 'Physically?' I asked eventually, patting my thighs and confirming that I certainly _felt_ solid. I was standing at... _in_... the same moment I had just been describing?

'No, our physical bodies remain where they are,' Inochi clarified, sounding just far too calm for the whole situation. After a few beats, he mused: 'It's actually very helpful to begin in darkness. Seeing yourself is generally the most unnerving part.'

As he spoke the sound of scraping against stone started. I took a step forward without thought, instinctively wanting to help myself escape. This was almost like inhabiting one of my clones. I shuddered and stepped back. I was having an out-of-body experience inside my own _mind_.

'So another of me is in there, a memory version?'

'Until you manage to pry your way out, yes.'

The scraping continued for a few more seconds, became more intense. Then rustling and a thump. The other version of me had leveraged just enough of herself out of the gap she'd made to fall onto the floor. She crawled, graceless and desperate; I didn't have to see her to know that. I shivered.

Inoichi was polite, at least, and didn't say anything about the breathless moans and other uncontrolled, panicked noises Other Me was emitting as she made a racket moving desperately away from the coffin.

A large seal flared into view, the lines simmering and weakly illuminating Other Me, lying on the floor with one arm outstretched to touch it, and the fact that it was placed on a roughly hewn slab of rock acting as a door to a cavern of some kind.

'You know this seal?' Inoichi queried.

'Of course. It's a common variant on the basic notice-me-not seal. This one is two sided; the outside diverts attention and the inside holds the rock in place.'

'I've never seen one before,' my companion offered evenly.

'They're useful, relatively easy to draw and not dangerous to get wrong, so they're used for training.' I paused, then amended quietly: 'Well, I suppose they _were_.'

'Damnit, fucking damnit, Kirin, no.'

It took a long, disconcerting second to realise it was Other Me's voice. The seal flared again, showing Other Me running a finger through the blood on her face and drawing a shaky counter seal in the centre of the boulder.

'Come on, you bastard,' Other Me hissed again. 'Yes!' She crowed in victory as the notice-me-not broke, the boulder rolling away easily. Sunlight poured into the chamber; bare aside from the stone coffin and a neat stack of holsters and gear next to it.

Other Me was shaking, eyes wild. She looked like a mad thing, her still open forehead wound leaking blood all down her face and neck. She pushed onto shaking elbows and looked down, finding herself nearly entirely covered in blood like she'd waded through a pool of it. She held her position a moment then rolled her shoulders, trying to rally her strength only to wince and curl forward protectively. Moving slowly, she turned back to put on her flak jacket and mask, still mostly on all fours. She sniffed, once, the only concession to her teary eyes, as she extracted her storage scroll from the pile and unsealed some food, a soldier pill and a heavy duty painkiller.

I remembered how fiercely I'd wrapped myself tight under my training to keep it together. Tried so hard it felt like I was about to burst.

'You knew your things would be there?' Inoichi asked me, and I felt my stomach sink in shame at the reminder he was there. Witness.

'I don't remember putting them there, but yes,' I responded flatly.

Inoichi shot me an indecipherable look, eyes sweeping over my clothes, before he looked back at Other Me. I looked down and saw my uniform, rather than the bland cotton set of pyjama-like things they had given me after they had confiscated said uniform. I didn't know what to make of it, so I ignored it.

Other Me wrenched her mask onto her face and staggered out of the chamber, muttering under her breath.

I realised myself and Inoichi had been moved within the memory so that Other Me stayed in sight. I lifted a foot and looked at it, then put it down again. The air we were standing on _felt_ solid. I looked down at the landscape blurring away underneath my immobile feet and then looked behind me to see a wall of grey nothingness.

Watching Other Me try to run was painful. She limped, hobbled, and fell more than once. Desperation was in every tense line of her body. Her face was contorted into a grimace, betraying the pain the analgesic hadn't touched.

Other Me didn't let herself rest until she reached the water that circled Uzushiogakure. She knelt at the water's edge and washed her hands of the blood before putting on her gloves, her movements still a bit jerky. She did some small, tentative stretches again and pulled her mask to the side to wash her face. Inoichi walked around until he could see that her eyes were darting around frenetically, cataloguing everything, examining the cliff face across the water from her for any clues. Other Me looked manic, rabid even, splattered red and twitching at the faintest sound.

'You think you need to fight,' Inoichi commented evenly.

'I thought the Village was being attacked. I didn't realise how delirious I was.' My feverish state coupled with the high from the pills meant I only remembered blotches of this. I realised Other Me was speaking under her breath – I'd had no awareness of that either. I was very clearly not in any state to fight. At the time it hadn't even occurred to me I would just be a liability, I had been so single-mindedly focussed on getting back to the Village. I swallowed past a lump in my throat, feeling oddly sorry for this other version of myself.

Other Me donned her mask again and launched herself across the water, letting out a quiet yelp of surprise when her chakra hold failed and she plunged in. She resurfaced, gasping and sputtering, and treaded water a little while. The blood was seeping out to form an ominous cloud around her in the bright, clear water. She let out a sobbed denial and swam. She got to the cliff face and tried to climb with chakra but had to resort to going without. Losing her footing, she caught onto a ledge with a hiss of pain. Her mad scramble got her over the edge and propelled her forward a few steps.

There she stopped, totally silent and still. A puppet with cut strings.

Inoichi didn't say anything and I didn't look at him, my chin firmly tucked into my collar and my eyes on the blur of blues that made up the horizon.

We'd been dragged behind Other Me, our feet landing on the edge of the cliff. There was a good forty feet of mostly flat plateau before the ground started to drop off into the central basin where Uzu sat, safely nestled at the centre of the biggest island in the range.

Other Me fell to her knees, and I couldn't help but look. I could only stomach watching for a second before I had to turn away.

I didn't want to watch this. I wanted that almost as much as I wanted nobody else to watch this. I barely remembered what had happened at this point, not as it was happening, in any case. I had realised I'd been screaming only when my throat began to burn. The only thing I remembered clearly was what I had seen. I didn't think I would ever forget the view that had greeted me that day. I would never have believed that Uzushio was gone without seeing it with my own eyes – and see it with my own eyes I had. Moss, decay, and bones picked clean.

Other Me was repeating various words like a mantra, which I didn't remember at all – _no, please, no, Gods, no_. And names. A frenzied litany of everyone I had ever known. Calling them out as if it would make them appear.

They wouldn't. Stupid girl.

This was the moment I had seen that irrefutable truth that was going to shape the rest of whatever sad little life I managed to scrape together. I'd had _so much_. And it was all gone, and this was all that was left. Ruins. I closed my eyes tight as Other Me began to keen like a wounded animal with broken, gulping heaves of breath. No tears. No.

I eventually realised that I was no longer standing up but sitting. I opened my eyes.

Inoichi was perched on the edge of the table next to me, waiting patiently. Once he saw I was back in the present, he took his seat across from me.

'So that was how you woke up. What did you think had happened when you saw Uzu?'

I stared at the table, held my eyes closed for a few breaths. 'Why did everything go grey?' I asked.

'You fell asleep. The technique can't explore dreams, only memories.'

I wondered at the limits of his technique. Could he _change_ memories? Could he sneak into someone's mind and examine their memory without them knowing?

Inoichi waved a hand, clearly trying to conjure the right words for someone who didn't instinctively know the inner workings of what had to be a clan technique. 'Dreams are too fragmented. There's no solid basis, no spaces like that cave that ground the memory into a particular place and time. Dreams might seem linear while you're in them, but they're more like collections of disjointed little things your mind wants to visit that get strung together because our minds like to think of everything as a story.'

I nodded in acknowledgement of his explanation. Perhaps I would now have to suspect whether things around me were even real, or false in a way I had never been trained to counter.

'The issue that they were having with you—' my gaze was drawn back up to Inoichi, who was watching me calmly over crossed arms. 'Is that they were operating under the assumption that they needed to break you. That everything you had said was an elaborate lie and that you had some ulterior motive to posing as a long-lost Uzumaki. That eventually you would have to give up your ruse, or that whatever held you under such impossible illusion would break eventually.'

I looked at Inoichi, examined him and the way he was examining me. It seemed an age ago that I had sat here and thought about how keen I had been to cooperate and how much I had wanted to get out of here. I couldn't quite remember why it had seemed so important, so urgent. I wanted to find the right words to respond, but they escaped me. I stayed silent.

'You said the name Kirin. Who is he?'

'My Sensei, later my Captain.'

'I see.' Inoichi drummed his fingers on the tabletop. 'Kohaku. What did you think had happened, when you saw Uzu?'

I opened my mouth, then closed it. If there was a word for tiredness beyond exhaustion, I felt I had reached it.

'I don't have the words. There is nothing to be said.'

I knew it was the wrong answer. That I was supposed to allow him to take advantage now by asking his questions when I was too drained to dissemble. But I didn't care. I wanted Inoichi to leave. I wanted everyone to leave.

We sat in tense silence. Inoichi kept his eyes on me; I kept mine on the table.

'We will have to look at some more memories, but I think that's enough for today.' Inoichi conceded eventually. Then he left, and I breathed out a silent sigh of relief.

I sat in the chair a long time after he was gone. I had that feeling where I needed to cry, to hollow out and expel some of the hurt, but they were still watching me. I wasn't going to let them see me break down. No. This was not my home and I was not safe. I had to keep it together.

I went to bed, and forced myself to go to sleep.

_**Interlude I** _

_'Tadaima!' I called as I quickly kicked off my sandals and ran into the kitchen. 'Kaa-chan, Kaa-chan, guess what, guess what!'_

_Kaa-chan smiled at me as she finished setting out the plates for dinner. 'Right on time as always, Kohaku-chan. And I don't know – tell me?'_

_'Keichi-sensei said my drawings were the best! He said, he said that mine were neatest and I might end up doing really great seals one day!'_

_'That's great! Well done, sweet pea!' Kaa-chan lifted me up and spun me in a circle. I giggled and waved my arms._

_'Hey, hey, I did so good, you know, maybe I can have an ice cream?'_

_'Wow, not even home for five seconds before you start negotiating!' Kaa-chan laughed and put me down. She tapped a finger on my nose. 'Tou-chan should be home tomorrow, why don't we wait until then and we'll all go out and get ice cream together?'_

_I raised my fists to the sky and punched the air a few times. 'Yes!'_

_'Now get started on dinner. It's not ice cream, but it is yakizakana!'_

_'Yes, Kaa-chan!' I said as I hopped onto my seat. 'Itadakimasu!'_

  
  


**Shikaku I**

Shikaku's gaze covered the meeting room in a slow pan. The mood was somber. There was fidgeting aplenty; nobody had actually expected or prepared for this outcome and he wagered they felt rather embarrassed to be caught out. Except Danzo, but he would rather self-immolate than admit he was a paranoid old prick who had made a mistake. Shikaku would not glory in his misfortune, not when they had all misstepped because of it.

'How can we be sure the Memory Viewing Technique has not been deceived?' Danzo put forward.

'Deceived how?' Shikaku asked, before his old teammate could respond to the insult. 'There is no known genjutsu that can manufacture memories with that level of detail, and Inoichi would have detected any alterations to existing memories.'

'We are clearly dealing with an unprecedented threat. Just because the technique is not known, does not mean it is not possible.'

Shikuaku shifted his head slightly, addressing his Hokage, who was gazing at an indeterminate point on the far wall through the thick cloud of tobacco smoke that circled him. 'Sarutobi-sama, do you know of any seals with such capabilities?'

Sarutobi's gaze flickered to him and he shook his head slowly. 'No, I do not, but we should consult the archives and Jiraiya.' He glanced at his secretary, who had notably not been taking any minutes of this meeting so far, who jotted down a note to contact the wayward Spymaster. Sarutobi sighed heavily, and the shinobi closest to him tried not to cough at the sizeable cloud of smoke he had expelled. 'Even if this were a memory fabrication using hitherto unknown genjutsu skills, it would have to be from someone familiar with Uzumaki shinobi before the fall of Uzu. And if that were the case, I cannot fathom the reason for using such a powerful technique for such an obvious and attention-seeking approach. It would have been easier to pick a refugee from Kiri, or one of our own MIA.'

'You don't suspect fuinjutsu, then?' Chouza asks, and Shikaku smiled inwardly. The Aikimichi never missed his cue. Shikaku was grateful that everyone mistook him for the dumb brawns of their old team.

Sarutobi would have shrugged, if he weren't the Hokage. 'If it is fuinjutsu, that road leads back to Uzu in any case.'

'This impostor claimed that the records in Uzu remained largely untouched. The information could have been sourced from there.'

Shikaku resisted the urge to roll his eyes. How he wished he could call the Councillor out on his bullshit. _Calling her an impostor doesn't make her an impostor, you ass_.

There was the slightest twitch near Sarutobi's right eye. Danzo had pushed too far.

'That is easy to ascertain. How? We send our own shinobi to verify,' Shibi offered.

Sarutobi considered it. He looked at Shikaku and gave him the slightest nod to indicate he go ahead. Shikaku dutifully complied: 'Two concerns: the first is that Uzumaki Kohaku has already removed such records and we are wasting our time, and the second is that disturbing the remains of Uzushio would alienate her.'

'Should her comfort really be our concern?' Tsume interjected, scratching a sharp claw against the table in boredom.

Shikaku understood why the Clan heads had been involved along with the council on this issue but it was a real pain in the ass to deal with them. The Clans hadn't managed to bring any useful information on the Uzumaki to the table, beyond what was already in the central archives, and now were just weighing in on a decision that rightly should have been between the Hokage and his closest advisors. Village security wasn't the top concern anymore so their focus had shifted to the potential upset to Clan politics, and it showed.

'If she is who she says she is, she's an incredibly valuable asset, and not one we want to throw away,' Sarutobi said, finally sounding thoughtful instead of morose. He looked at Inoichi, who had remained silent after giving the brief report that had kicked off the meeting and had mainly been studying the tabletop since. 'Any thoughts, Inoichi?'

Inoichi stirred. 'I personally harbour no doubts that our detainee is Uzumaki Kohaku. The memory I observed of her waking corresponded with her story. Her mental projection wore an Uzumaki uniform and in her memory she displayed the rapid healing and chakra regeneration of the Uzumaki bloodline. I will perform a full Mind Transmission tomorrow to confirm it. Should further evidence be required outside of my clan's techniques, might I suggest that she be asked to demonstrate her skills in fuinjutsu and perhaps corroborate what Hokage-sama remembers of her identity or of Uzu.'

He subsided back into his thoughful daze as soon as he was done. Shikaku was surprised at how affected Inoichi seemed. He would have to invite his old teammate over to discuss. Inoichi had described the circumstances factually and concisely, confirming that their prisoner had awoken in a cavern near Uzu with severe chakra exhaustion and had made her way to her claimed village on foot, but perhaps there had been more he had held back.

'We will have to summon Jiraiya to the Village immediately. No sealing demonstrations should be undertaken until he is here. In the meantime, Inoichi is to perform Mind Transmission and continue interrogation.' Sarutobi glanced around and then gave nobody time to object. 'Meeting dismissed.'

Shikaku didn't move as the rest of the Clan leaders and Councillors moved to depart. He was vindicated when Sarutobi followed up his speech with a curt: 'Inoichi, Shikaku: remain.'

Once the room had emptied, Inoichi sighed and started massaging his neck. Sarutobi waited patiently as he emptied and refilled his pipe.

'So, tell me.'

Inoichi shook his head, his palms flat on the table. 'It would be convenient if I could bring passengers with me into the memories other than the subject. I don't have the words to describe it,' he eventually remarked.

'What has you so unsettled?' Shikaku asked, exchanging a look with his Hokage; his leader was just as perturbed as he was, seeing their head of Analysis visibly disquieted.

Inoichi let out another deep sigh, then rested his elbows on the table with his fingers laced tight together in front of his mouth. 'Something doesn't feel right.' He held up a hand before Sarutobi could say anything. 'Not about her identity, as I said – I harbour no doubts that she is who she says she is. What has unsettled me is the circumstances of her awakening. The cavern she was in looked natural, but the container was not. She was covered in blood, most of it still wet, and her gear had been left in a neat pile inside the cavern.' Inoichi paused and bowed his head, rubbing his joined hands against his forehead. He shook his head again.

Shikaku sent another look Sarutobi's way, who was now watching Inoichi with an intense, unwavering stare. He looked like he was waiting for bad news.

Inoichi sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. His hands were still tense, pressed against his stomach. Shikaku eyed his teammate with rising trepidation. Shit. He knew better than to dismiss Inoichi's instincts. 'She was extremely distressed. I am concerned that she suffered a mental break from seeing Uzu destroyed.' Inochi sat up and addressed the Hokage and reeled off a list of names. 'Do you recognise them?'

Sarutobi nodded slowly. 'Mitsuo and Satoshi were her teammates. Did she mention Kirin?'

'Her Sensei? Yes.' Inoichi leaned back again, rubbing his temple. 'She seemed to be searching for him.'

Sarutobi rubbed his own eyes now, looking like he had a headache. 'You think there was foul play involved in the fall of Uzu.' He let out a breath. 'I suppose there had to be. It was so well defended – I've wondered before if their barriers were compromised from within.' He examined Inoichi. 'I wouldn't bet on Kirin being a traitor to Uzu, if that's what you're thinking.'

'How did you know Kirin?' Shikaku asked.

Sarutobi took some time to answer, tapping his pipe against the table. 'Kirin was one of the Uzu elites. Uzu didn't have the same need for bureaucracy as the five Villages. Hinami and Hasumi were the village leaders, and there was a Head of Fuinjutsu and a Head of Administration. Plus a few advisors the twins leant on, but they had no official titles. If Uzu had had need, Kirin would have undoubtedly been Jounin Commander. As it was he became the Anbu Commander, albeit only ever over his one squad.'

'That was it, no Council? Sounds peaceful.' Shikaku said, and got the wry albeit weak smile from his Hokage that he was looking for.

Shikaku knew that Sarutobi was feeling like shit for letting Danzo get his way and having Anbu interrogate Kohaku. The Third still felt personally responsible for failing to prevent the destruction of their sister Village. To come face to face with an Uzumaki shinobi had stirred up all kinds of guilt and self-recrimination. That Danzo had then arranged for his goons to lead the interrogation was insult to injury – Sarutobi was not happy that Root was clearly not disbanded as he had ordered last year. Shikaku had to wonder why Danzo had pushed so hard on this; he had used up a significant amount of political capital to get his way and from what Shikaku could see had gotten nothing out of it.

Another sigh from Inoichi. Shikaku used that as his cue to turn to Sarutobi. 'Hokage-sama, I trust Inoichi's judgement. I think he's right, and we have made a... tactical error.'

Sarutobi rolled his eyes and looked unamused. 'Why is it that whenever you address me as _Hokage-sama_ it's to give me attitude? Just say what you want to straight – we screwed up.'

Shikaku waved a hand. 'Let's imagine for a minute, that we have a genuine Uzumaki that's been in a sealing-induced coma as she claims since Uzu fell. She wakes up, she finds the Village destroyed, she's devastated.' Shikaku paused and checked with Inoichi, who nodded in agreement as he resettled in his chair in a more attentive pose. 'She realises it's been years since that happened, long past any point where there's anything she can do about it. She comes to the only place she can expect to find allies and maybe answers. She asks to join the Village and offers to share the sealing knowledge that her Village was razed to the ground for as a gesture of her goodwill.' Here, Shikaku paused, not wanting to push Sarutobi too far himself. 'And our response is...' He trailed off, raising his eyebrows at his Hokage in encouragement.

Sarutobi grunted around his pipe. 'And our response was to torture her. I know what you're getting at, Shikaku. We will discuss this later.'

'Hmm.' Shikaku turned to his old teammate, finding him watching the proceedings with interest. 'Inoichi, how effective would you say the initial interrogation efforts were?'

Inoichi shook his head, exasperated. 'It _might_ have been effective if it _had_ been a ruse, but only for the initial black bag routine. Watching those agents try and use soft skills was painful. I don't know where you got them from as I don't recognise them from T&I, but they need better training,' Inoichi answered promptly. Shikaku whistled inside his head; Inoichi must also be feeling like shit to speak so freely when talking to the Hokage without explicit permission to do so. 'Kohaku was clearly confused, and convinced that I was there to bait and switch an initially friendly approach with further pain to try and break her down. I'm surprised that she didn't protest viewing those memories with me, but it's obvious she is only allowing this to continue because she's desperate to prove herself. We push her too hard and we risk that she self-detonates. We need to be doing a full psyche eval on her. She needs a lot of therapy. A lot.' Inoichi paused, and then reiterated “a lot” one more time.

'Understood,' Sarutobi said on an exhale. Then he looked at Shikaku, who did his best not to smirk in victory. He already knew what was coming next. 'The real risk was that Danzo's conviction that this was some ploy was wrong and we would alienate a valuable resource, which is exactly what may have happened.' Sarutobi finally put away his pipe. 'Danzo had me convinced his agents are effective and efficient, but what use are agents that can only operate by not having to interact with others?' Sarutobi massaged his forehead. 'What was he thinking? What was I thinking? Bah.'

'He won't let it go that easy,' Shikaku warned. 'You know that. You tell him you know what he's playing at and he'd just go even further underground.'

'What do you suggest?'

Shikaku privately thought that this was Sarutobi's one weakness – he liked to think was a benevolent leader and he followed through on that by asking for others' opinions and taking them into consideration. It worked fine when he was asking Shikaku, if he did say so himself, but it was much less desirable when it came to the Council.

'You need someone on the inside. Kohaku would be a good choice. Being able to keep her under his observation and control would be his ideal outcome. It wouldn't surprise me if he asks you to let him induct her, nevermind that she's already an adult and a fully trained agent. He'll justify it by saying she is in a state where she can be influenced and moulded into the perfect soldier.' Shikaku tried not to sound sarcastic as he said the last two words.

'He wouldn't be wrong, because she is – but only because she's incredibly fragile psychologically. He'd run the risk of breaking her,' Inoichi interjected, at attention now. Shikaku found it interesting that Inoichi already wanted to advocate for Kohaku. As welcome as the support was, he would have to keep an eye on it – just because Shikaku often thought Danzo was too paranoid for his own good didn't mean he had to be wrong about it being _not impossible_ for this to be a ploy.

Shikaku shrugged. 'He doesn't give a fuck about that. He doesn't when it's a Konoha-nin born and bred, let alone some stray Uzumaki.'

Sarutobi held up a hand before anything more could be said. 'Following through that this is Uzumaki Kohaku, she's technically the only live, identified Uzumaki shinobi to which Konoha would owe reparations. We are honour bound to offer her asylum, and we certainly cannot do her the disservice of pushing her into a mental breakdown.'

'She'll want to fight,' Shikaku mused aloud. 'Last thing she knew, the Second War was still on. To her, Uzu was destroyed only days ago. She'll want to be pitted against Kiri forces.'

Sarutobi nodded in acknowledgement, thoughtful again. 'Days ago? Have we established how long ago, exactly, she... hm, woke up?'

Inoichi scoffed. 'No. I'll confirm her movements since waking tomorrow in our next session before we go into more memories.'

Shikaku let silence reign for a little while before asking if Inoichi had found out anything else interesting during the mindwalk. The Yamanaka responded in the negative; nothing confirmed, and Kohaku had cut the session short. Inoichi commented with a grimace that even as he had tried to continue the session, he knew Kohaku reliving her awakening would have been draining and he ran the risk of her shutting him out by pushing. The risk hadn't played out.

Sarutobi gave one final sigh, then glanced at Shikaku. 'We will reconvene tomorrow once Inoichi has had the next session. No more full Clan congregations for this – we're sticking with Inoichi's approach.' The Hokage stood, gathering his hat and shoving it onto his head as he moved to leave. 'I need a tall, stiff drink.'

'Hokage-sama,' Shikaku called. Sarutobi froze near the threshold, his hand going back to his side from where he had been about to deactivate the privacy seal on the wall. He turned slowly, eyeing Shikaku warily.

'If she is Uzumaki Kohaku, which we are now in agreement she is, we need to think about Naruto.'

Sarutobi aged ten years in the next second as his whole face fell. 'I know, Shikaku. I know.' He turned and left before Shikaku could say anything further.

Once he had gone, Inoichi collapsed back in his chair. 'What a long fucking day.'

'Language.'

'Fuck you, language.' Inoichi retorted with an empty chuckle. 'What a Kami-forsaken mess.' He looked exhausted. Shikaku examined him closely as he rubbed his eyes.

'Mess has its uses. Exposing Danzo's ineptitude among them.' Shikaku commented idly. 'Dinner?'

Inoichi rolled his eyes. 'You just want to interrogate me yourself. No offence, but I don't have the energy for Yoshino today. Tomorrow, maybe. I want to know more about whatever Danzo's doing that's got your back up.' He stood and they both made their way to the door.

'No offence, he says,' Shikaku muttered with a smile. He waved his old teammate away, 'Until tomorrow, then.'


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's chapter 2!
> 
> I've tried to make it clear within the story, but just in case there's confusion - the Interludes are snippets of Kohaku's life in chronological order, and the third POV is in the main timeline and usually after a little bit of a timeskip (in this case, a few days).

**Kohaku II**

'I'm glad it's you back today,' I commented as Inoichi sat down and passed me my food.

I'd meditated for four hours this morning after waking, waiting for Inoichi to arrive and preparing myself, trying to figure out how to interact with someone who had seen me at one of my lowest points. The only thing I'd resolved was my certainty that Inoichi was my way forward and out. I had to show them that he was getting far more effective results than Hito. I _needed_ to engage with him and open up, even if I wasn't really sure how to do that.

Inoichi smiled at me. 'I'll take that as a compliment. So, Kohaku, how are you today? The Memory Viewing Technique tends to leave people a bit out of sorts.'

I pretended not to notice as he observed me. I focused on my food – every day it got a bit tastier. Did that mean something? Maybe I was overthinking things. Maybe I was just becoming acclimatised to the taste.

'Out of sorts is a way of putting it, but then everything since I've woken up has made me feel like that. Except it's me that's out of place.' I shrugged. 'I'll get used to it.'

'About that,' Inoichi drew circles on the metal tabletop as he thought, his posture relaxed as he leant sideways in his chair and his elbow on the table. 'How long, exactly, has it been since what we saw yesterday?'

I finished my rice and put it to one side. 'The days blurred together, but if I had to guess I would say about... maybe six months?'

Inoichi's eyebrows jumped all the way up his forehead. 'That long? How did you spend the time?'

Suddenly, it was hard to look at him. 'I buried the dead.' The hot flash of victory at seeing him squirm was hollow. 'Learned to fish. Gathered supplies and made clothes. It was a long time on my own before I felt I could... rejoin society,' I admitted, poking at my food.

His face softened a little out of the corner of my eye. 'I see. You also mentioned you investigated the attack and the underground records?'

I nodded. 'Yes. Not much to say, other than that it was clearly planned to crush us. They didn't intend to leave anyone alive.'

Inoichi hummed. 'What makes you say that?'

'They focussed large-scale attacks on targets that didn't make much sense for undermining our active forces, like the hospital and residential districts, and left the rendezvous points practically untouched. I also corroborated that information in Kiri.'

Inoichi blinked, then blinked again. 'I beg your pardon? _In_ Kiri?'

'I infiltrated Kiri and took a copy of their records. They collaborated with Kumo, but only temporarily. They gave them passage through the Kaizoku sea on Kiri ships. Once Uzu was destroyed, the alliance dissolved.'

Inoichi sat back, seemingly stunned. 'You infiltrated Kiri.'

I frowned at him. 'Yes. It didn't seem to me like Konoha and Kiri were allied, so that shouldn't be too problematic, should it?'

Inoichi gathered himself and leaned forward again, gaze keen. 'Did you get caught?'

'No. I'm a deep cover specialist and Kiri is the territory outside Uzu and the Land of Fire I'm most familiar with. It was a good starting point to figuring out how the world had changed, and I was fairly certain that Kiri had been involved in the attack.'

Inoichi nodded at my reasoning. 'And how did you find Kiri?'

I ran my tongue over my lip as I looked at the ceiling. 'Well, speaking freely, it's a shithole. Their civilians are terrified and their shinobi subdued and not as numerous as they should be in peacetime. They've had a lot of defections including most if not all of the Swordsmen. They seem to have had successive civil wars and their anti-bloodline sentiment ramped up into full-blown genocide at one point so their powerful bloodline clans are gone or with the resistance. They've churned through a succession of Kages, and the current one is young and his men don't respect him, at best they fear him and his supposedly mercurial disposition.' I looked back down at Inoichi. 'I'm guessing you knew all that. I can't imagine them capable of hiding problems on that scale.'

Inoichi nodded slowly. 'It does sound in line with existing intel. Did you take anything else except the records?'

I cocked my head and gave Inoichi a smirk that was perhaps a little smug. 'I didn't take the records, I took _copies_ of the records. They have no idea their archives were compromised. My clone took copies of anything else it thought was interesting, but there wasn't much. This was a historic archive in the main building, not active intel or anything that you'd find useful, which was much more securely tucked away near the Mizukage's tower. I didn't want to risk going for that.'

'How did you do it?' He seemed genuinely interested.

'I sent in two Rock clones, one a decoy disguised as a Kiri-nin returning from a mission that was meant to get caught and draw attention to the Mizukage's tower, and a second under my strongest concealment seal which scaled the building and entered from the top window. It got in and out without issue.'

'And where was the real you during all this?'

'Working at the same nearby bar I'd been working at for the last month. I was disguised as a Kiri native, basing my appearance on a Kiri shinobi I know died in the War. Once I had the information, I told my employer I had to go back home to one of the satellite islands to look after my grandfather. Then I left.'

Inoichi crossed his arms and stared at me. I resisted the urge to fidget. Then he let out a rueful chuckle. 'At some point, I'd like to see Kiri from your eyes. And go over your past infiltrations in more detail to work up a profile for you – I'm going to wager that you're a bit more experienced in the field than we're used to these days.'

I laughed, then tried not to feel too awkward when the surprise of it made it choke off awkwardly. 'Sure. I don't think any missions need to be classified any longer.' I hesitated. 'Can I ask why you were so surprised I got into Kiri? Is deep cover work as antiquated as fuinjutsu these days?'

Inoichi rubbed his chin. 'I suppose the surprise is that you operated entirely independently, without any support. We wouldn't send any agents into another Major Village without extensive prep.'

'That makes sense.'

'Does it?' Inoichi was intrigued. Good.

'We were all used to solo ops. We didn't have the same manpower as a big five and we were often split to support Konoha forces. Add to that wartime, where “extensive prep” meant more than one debriefing...'

Inoichi nodded absently. 'I have a question about that. You've said before that your last clear memory was returning after a mission, sometime before the destruction of Uzu. Why do you think the memories are missing?'

I held my breath, then I leaned as far forward as I could, eyes locked on his. 'I have previously had an extremely sensitive mission removed, sealed away. I was informed that they had carried out the procedure so I wouldn't be concerned with the gap in my memories. I think the same procedure was performed on me again. Can you help me recover them?'

'Potentially.' Inoichi leaned forward as well, resting his folded arms on the table. 'As you can imagine, mind seals are not something I have seen very often. Can I ask why you think they'd be sealed away?'

I blew out an aggravated breath. 'I don't know – that would be the whole point, wouldn't it? Maybe he just didn't want me to remember... all of it.' Watching everyone give their all and fall short.

'He? Kirin?'

I nodded.

'Maybe the purpose was vengeance. Somebody with your skills could infiltrate the other major Villages – exactly as you have already done with Kiri – and cause serious disruption.'

I looked back at Inoichi, and sucked my lips against my teeth. 'About that. Disruption.' Then I hesitated, unsure how the next bit of news would be received. But it seemed counterproductive to hide things, even if my instincts screamed at me to bury anything that might be poorly received and threaten my chances.

'Yes?' He prompted.

'I may have... planted an explosive in Kiri's HQ. If it's not deactivated in the next year, give or take, it will detonate.'

Inoichi's eyebrows shot up again, and his eyes widened comically. He didn't say anything for a while, clearly chewing things over in his mind.

'Why the timer?' He asked me eventually.

'It felt like the middle ground. I'd just found confirmation that Kiri had destroyed my Village, but at the same time it was practically ancient history and the people responsible for that decision were dead.' A look back at Inoichi revealed little of what he was thinking. 'It was zoned to the building. No civilians will be harmed.'

'How can you be sure?' He asked, voice suspiciously even.

'Because civilians are too low a caste in Kiri to be allowed anywhere near the HQ.' I shook my head emphatically. 'The chance a civilian will be near HQ let alone inside it on the day it goes off is close to nil.'

Inoichi relaxed some and leaned back in his chair, rubbing the back of his neck. 'Well, thank you disclosing it.' He stilled for a second, and shot me a look. 'Any other infiltrations I should know about?'

'No. I knew Suna and Iwa hadn't had anything to do with the attack, and it was too risky to infiltrate Kumo. Their Village security has always been very high. They're a suspicious bunch.'

'That they are.' Inoichi hummed thoughtfully as he rolled up his sleeves.

I felt my stomach drop. I knew what he was working up to next. 'So, do you think you can help me recover memories under seals?'

'Only one way to find out,' Inoichi offered with a smile. 'A slightly different technique enters your mindscape rather than a specific memory. If we're lucky, it will be easy to identify memories that have been sealed off.'

'Alright,' I said, trying not to seem too keen. I wasn't looking forward to being broken open again, but I needed answers. I was willing to pay that price to recover what was missing. Even if I suspected that Kirin would have only done it for a very good reason, I had to know. No matter how painful. I had to know.

Inoichi stood and moved to behind my chair. 'Relax and empty your mind.' He placed his hand directly on top of my head and I tried not to fidget.

'Mind Transmission,' Inoichi murmured behind me. My eyelids fluttered as images raced behind my eyes. _Taijutsu lessons with Kirin, mis-formed seal blowing up in my face, fireworks at the Water Festival, holding Mitsuo's hand tight at my parents' funeral, celebrating getting home with my Kiyoko and Akane, the front in Ame and watching Suzuko die, working in Sealing HQ with Umiko bored out of our minds, a team debrief with Kirin's hand on my shoulder, standing in the arena in Konoha, diving in Kusakabe cove, drunkenly kissing Isei outside the bar, cover blown in Iwa and a knife sliding deep between my ribs, dancing on the water with Satoshi in rain season_ —

When Inoichi took his hand away and stepped back, I rocketed up from the chair. I paced back and forth as Inoichi returned to his place at the table.

'You saw all that, didn't you?' I accused, trying not to shake.

Inoichi was solemn and he sat back down unhurriedly, which only served to make me more angry. 'Yes. I thought that examining each memory in turn would distress you. Mind Transmission allows me to observe a great many memories at a much quicker pace. I don't get nearly as much detail, but I don't need to.'

I sat down again and laced my fingers together. I had been dreading having to relive memories from Before, seeing all my loved and lost up close. He had ripped it all off, tried to make a quick, clean cut. There was mercy in that. I breathed deeply and calmed myself.

'You are Uzumaki Kohaku,' he said. A statement of fact.

I gave him a wobbly smile and tried not to let my relief show. 'Pleased to meet you.'

'Although Mind Transmission has its use in confirming your identity, I wasn't lying about being able to identify altered memories. Usually memories appear behind a series of doors in the mindscape. In your case, some of those doors have seals on them, and one of those doors is where I would expect memories within the last year or so to be.'

My pulse spiked in excitement. 'So the seal was visualised in some way? If you could replicate it, I can try to figure out how to break it.' Could it be that easy?

'It was, but it will take several more trips for me to be able to replicate it from memory with anything close to accuracy.'

I nodded vigorously. 'That's fine. We have time.' I paused. 'And in the interest of full disclosure, I did poison two men. In Kiri.'

Inoichi sighed and let out a disbelieving laugh. 'Anyone important?'

'No. They were still chuunin, despite being old enough to have been involved in the attack on Uzu.'

Inoichi tapped the table. 'Fair enough. The explosive you planted is our primary concern. Unfortunately, reviewing the memories of clones is not possible. You will need to provide me with a report the old fashioned way. There may also need to be a follow up interview with one of our Infiltration team, in case it has any bearing on current or planned ops.'

'That's fine. Would you like to do so now?' I was oddly eager, like focusing on Kiri would be a good palate cleanser. Would soothe the heartburn from seeing memories from Before.

Inoichi made a gesture, and an Anbu entered the room to hand him supplies. I eyed them suspiciously, but I didn't recognise them from my earlier stay in the cells.

'All your previous handlers have been rotated out,' Inoichi informed me with a hint of contrition.

I bowed my head in acknowledgement. It was probably the closest I would get to an apology, and there was no point kicking up a fuss.

Once Inoichi was ready, pen poised as he looked up at me expectantly, I began. 'I chose a day with heavy rain and began operations in early afternoon. In the alley behind the bar where I had been working as a waitress for several weeks, I created two Rock clones. The first was under a simple Henge...'

  
  


_**Interlude II** _

_'I haven't read your files. I don't need to. Whatever is in them won't matter a year from now. Whatever your natural talents and inclinations and affinities – irrelevant. I chose_ you _because of all your peers, you three worked the hardest. Your talents don't matter, because what you really need is the dedication and discipline to train harder than anyone else to learn more than anyone else. With me as your teacher, you'll cover every possible discipline and be expected to be Chuunin or above in_ all _of them. I'm not your normal Sensei, and you won't be a normal team. Do you accept the challenge?'_

_'Yes, Sensei!'_

  
  


**Inoichi**

Inoichi tried not to breathe an obvious sigh of relief as he exited his fourth session with Kohaku only to be immediately directed to the adjoining observation room.

The Hokage had evidently followed through with his plan to cut down the meetings to just himself, Inoichi, and Shikaku. Inoichi was definitely not sorry he would no longer have to sit through full Clan head congregations. Not least because the Hokage had announced at the last Council meeting that Kohaku was shortly to be released. There had been quite the disagreement on that but Sarutobi had been firm that they couldn't hold her as prisoner any longer with no evidence of her claimed identity being false nor any other wrongdoing. Naturally all the Clan Heads had heard about it by now and the buzz around the whole ordeal was probably going derail Clan meetings for the foreseeable future, even if they ostensibly weren't supposed to include discussions on the apparition of mysterious Uzumaki.

Both Shikaku and the Hokage were seated so they directly faced the one way mirror. Inoichi sat at Shikaku's right hand side and tried not to study his Hokage too closely, even though he had to admit he was curious to see how Sarutobi reacted to seeing Kohaku in the flesh. She had tried to get an audience with him when she first arrived in Konoha but evidently had never made it that far. Sarutobi had never actually seen her this close before while she was conscious. If Inoichi had to put a word to his expression, it would be something close to wonder.

'Afternoon Hokage-sama, Shikaku. Were you watching the session just now?'

'Not all of it, but the last half-hour or so. Makes for interesting watching,' Shikaku commented as he drew his gaze away from where their prisoner remained sat at the desk. 'She's very responsive to you.'

Inoichi crossed his arms, still a bit annoyed that Danzo had managed to get his agents – who very clearly had very little training in interrogation – in to handle a prisoner in such delicate circumstances. 'I suppose in that sense the hamfisted approaches earlier were useful primers. She's ecstatic to be interacting with anyone normal.'

Shikaku smothered a smile as he caught Inoichi's eye. Inoichi gave him an innocent look. Really, his old teammate couldn't have expected to spend practically an entire meal talking his ear off with complaints about Danzo's Root and for Inoichi not to use this newfound knowledge.

'She really does look and act like the Kohaku I remember,' Sarutobi commented, eyes still on her. 'Even the way she fiddles with her ear.'

Inoichi followed his gaze, where Kohaku could be seen through the grey tinge of the mirror to be tugging on her earlobe as she read her book, one on the Second War that Inoichi had procured for her. As he watched, she reached a passage that made her scoff and exaggeratedly roll her eyes. He saw her mouth some very rude words about the historical accuracy of the contents.

A deep sigh from the Hokage drew his focus back. Sarutobi was massaging the bridge of his nose. 'I got word from Jiraiya. He's been waylaid – intel on Orochimaru. The sealing demonstration is no longer required at this point, but I want it to go ahead once he arrives regardless. They should meet and it should be a useful exercise for them both.'

'Not to mention if her deep cover skills are what she claims, he would probably become her handler,' Shikaku interjected. Inoichi was not surprised that Shikaku had already been planning how best to deploy Kohaku.

'I don't want her set loose on the rest of the world at large just yet. She could be a loose cannon and once she operates under our directive any mistakes become our problem. I want her working with men I can trust who can observe her.'

'She should be under psychiatric monitoring for at least six months. It would surprise me if she _didn't_ struggle to adjust to life in Konoha. She's not going to find it easy to settle into a new normal of peacetime in another Village with few ties to her old life and no friendly faces,' Inoichi interrupted, before the conversation could get dragged into the arena of just assigning a team of Anbu as watchdogs.

'So what you're saying is, we need to give her people to get attached to,' Shikaku said, a satisfied glint is his eyes.

Sarutobi let out a put-upon sigh. 'Yes, Naruto, I know. However, the pushback I will receive for that will be... significant, and I want to make sure she's of absolutely sound mind before we let her near him.'

Inoichi drummed his fingers on the table, watching Kohaku again as she moved the rug out of the middle of the room and began performing katas. 'There are two options: a grief counsellor, or I keep working with her.'

'Why not both?' Shikaku suggested, one hand raised. 'You can be her first friendly face, a regular point of contact.'

Inoichi hummed; the idea had merit. 'We need to manage her interactions with others, introduce new people slowly. We should get one of our own to train with her, one on one. Someone who could shadow her for her first few missions.'

Sarutobi and his Jounin Commander exchanged a look. 'Well, we've got a couple of choices there, including Asuma, but the obvious one is Kakashi. We know his loyalty to you personally, Hokage-sama, and they both have Anbu skillsets and backgrounds, and he's finding it... difficult to adjust to being back in the standard forces.' Shikaku put forward.

'He's being a nuisance,' Inoichi corrected. 'I don't even work in Admin and I know the migraine he's giving them.'

Sarutobi nodded thoughtfully. 'He won't take on a genin team, so now he has to take on a subordinate.'

'Subordinate? She might be more powerful than he is,' Shikaku said.

'Good. He could use some motivation to improve his skills.' Sarutobi declared with some amusement. He gestured towards the mirror. 'I want to speak with her.'

Inoichi was surprised, but Shikaku didn't seem to be. Without further discussion, the Hokage gathered himself and his hat and exited the observation room. Shikaku chuckled when Kohaku startled at the very polite knock on the door.

'Come in,' she said, moving the rug back and standing in the middle of it. When Sarutobi entered, her face was the picture of shock. 'Sandaime-sama,' she greeted, and bowed. She seemed a bit unnerved when Sarutobi bowed right back, and lower.

'I wish to offer you my deepest and sincerest apologies for how poorly we received your arrival.'

Kohaku stared at Sarutobi, then hastily spoke when it seemed the Hokage would hold his position until she acknowledged him. 'Hokage-sama, this isn't necessary. I understand the suspicion, it was to be expected.'

Sarutobi straightened from his bow and folded his arms behind his back. 'Your forgiveness humbles me. Please, let us be seated.'

Inoichi shot the Jounin Commander a glance during the awkward relocation into the metal seats on the other side of the mirror. 'What is going on?' He asked carefully, seeing that Shikaku was still not as shocked as he could be.

Shikaku gave the tiniest shrug as he lifted one shoulder marginally. 'The Hokage is just exercising his prerogative to speak with any political refugee.'

Inoichi chewed that over as he refocused on the conversation in the other room. Kohaku was being asked how she wanted her arrival to be announced to the rest of the Village, a question which seemed to alarm her quite a bit. She gave a nervous and truthful answer that she hadn't particularly thought about it, and thought it was Sarutobi's decision.

'Ah, I see. Hokage-sama still runs the show. Of course,' Iniochi said with a nod. He gave Shikaku an amused look. 'You've really put a bee in that hat about letting Danzo walk all over this so far, haven't you?'

Shikaku gave a grunt that most would probably interpret as non-committal. Inoichi knew it was confirmation. He chuckled.

'Must be nice always getting your way.'

'I told you to pray for a son,' Shikaku responded drolly.

'Oh, shut up,' Inoichi said with a laugh as he refocused on the Hokage's words. Sarutobi was asking Kohaku what position she'd envisaged when she'd asked to join the Village and if she wanted to be a field agent, to which he got an immediate and emphatic _yes_.

'We will need the head nurse at a hospital to confirm you are fit for field duty and my head of T&I to interview you confirm no ill will to Konoha.'

'Of course,' Kohaku agreed mildly, looking calm and attentive. 'Do you require anything else of me to confirm my identity?'

Sarutobi stroked his goatee for a bit. 'You were last in Konoha when you were eighteen, the year before the War started.'

Kohaku nodded. 'I was here on secondment for tutelage. It was common practice – Konoha would send shinobi to Uzu to learn about sealing or to improve their supplies, and Uzu would send shinobi to Konoha to get training on everything other than sealing which could at times be hard to come by. That particular trip was to work with several genjutsu specialists from the Uchiha clan as part of some of my more advanced seal designs.'

'You showed them to me, as I recall.'

Kohaku's face lit with surprise and a hint of pleasure. 'I was not expecting you to remember me, Hokage-sama, but that is correct. You complimented my line work.'

Shikaku was looking at him. Inoichi raised an eyebrow in query but kept his eyes on his Hokage, who was smiling.

'Must be nice always being right,' Shikaku said. 'If he had any lingering doubts, they're gone now.'

The conversation in the interrogation room had moved onto the topic of getting Konoha's one Seal Master to review Kohaku's work. Kohaku agreed readily and looked, to Inoichi's eyes, to be _excited_ at the thought. Whether at the confirmation it would provide of her skills or of another in her specialism to talk to, he was unsure.

'I must take my leave of you now. I expect that we will be conducting your entry interviews in the next few days.'

'Of course, Hokage-sama,' Kohaku responded deferentially as she bowed.

Sarutobi walked back into the observation room, but he didn't sit. He only glanced at Shikaku and then gestured for him to follow. 'If you would, we have a mess to clean up.' He nodded at Inoichi in dismissal as the pair left.

Inoichi stayed seated for a little while longer, watching the Uzumaki on the other side. He knew that Kohaku would expect to be watched, but he was still intrigued to see the easily readable dumbfounded look on her face as she processed that she'd had an amiable chat with the Hokage, the one she'd asked for when she first arrived.

When she eventually picked her scroll back up, he took it as his cue and left.

Two wasted months, Inoichi thought sourly. Still, it was done. At least Kohaku still seemed as determined as ever to join the Village. Now the task had become to keep her on side, and in one piece.


	3. Chapter 3

**Kohaku III**

I looked down at the keys, the big bold 6-2 engraved on the wooden keychain just in case I forgot my own address. Then up at the Hokage Tower, which apparently was actually called the Administrative Centre, and then at the apartment building to its immediate right.

'That's... close,' I commented.

Inoichi snorted in amusement. 'Standard Jounin allocation. Some are away from the Village too often to warrant having their own apartments, so we provide state housing for them, your training partner among them.'

The closeness made sense – rapid response time. And in the case of foreigners of dubious origin, keeping an eye on them. I glanced down at the chakra cuffs I had been told had to stay on “for the time being” and tugged down my sleeves. I wasn't particularly fond of looking like a criminal. At least they'd politely only assigned me one watchdog “training partner”.

It was pretty basic but more than I had been expecting. The hallway had two doors, one leading into a compact but functional kitchen and the second into a living room with a two seater sofa and a small kotatsu. Off the living room was the bedroom and small bathroom. I lingered in the bedroom; there were several inset shelving units on the walls that I appreciated and the desk seemed sturdy. I ran my hand along the windowsill and looked out at the view, the bustling square right outside the Hokage Tower. It was going to take some getting used to, being in the middle of so many souls again. It was right, and yet not.

My things were in a neat pile at the foot of my bed. 'Anything confiscated?' I called to Inoichi.

Inoichi appeared in the doorway and shook his head. 'Not as far as I'm aware. They couldn't access most of your items in storage scrolls but the Hokage gave special dispensation to allow you to keep them.'

I rummaged around a bit, finding everything in order. I attached my main holster then went into the kitchen to check the cupboards, which were completely bare.

'Point me towards the closest convenience store?' Then I frowned. 'Hang on.' I sat and unrolled my storage scroll on the dining table and extracted the contents of my currency slot. 'Is this money still good?'

Inoichi was caught off guard by the amount of ryo bills that had just appeared. 'Yes, but why do you have what looks like a million ryo in a storage scroll?'

'I never go anywhere without huge sums of money on my person,' I told him mock-seriously. 'You never know when you'll get stranded in another country and need to build an entirely new life.' I resealed most of the money, already planning the furnishings I would get. 'So who's this training partner you mentioned?'

'Hatake Kakashi. He lives in apartment 6-1 next to you, in fact. He's got a similar background to you, should be a good fit.'

I blinked, then opened my sealing scroll again and extracted a Bingo Book I'd gotten in Kiri. 'Pretty sure he's in this,' I said as I flipped it open.

Inoichi stared at the volume in my hand for a few moments before shaking his head in exasperation. 'I shouldn't be surprised you have that. I'll see about getting you a Konoha version.' He then handed me a purse. 'I'm also going to pretend I didn't see that you're a millionaire and give you the funds we allocated to helping you get set up. After this you'll get the basic Jounin salary. Your first training session with Kakashi is set for noon tomorrow – I'm going to be nice and warn you that he's going to be late.'

'I thought the Hokage was going to be attending? We have another meeting after to discuss it.'

Inoichi shrugged. 'He will be. Kakashi will be late anyway.' He chuckled at the look on my face. 'Punctuality is not his strong suit.'

'Alright,' I drew the word out, wondering who this guy was in a Konoha context to be able to disrespect the Hokage like that. One of his former students? 'Anything else I need to know?'

'No, that's it. Anything you want to ask me?'

I weighed the purse in my hand, then set it aside. 'This is probably going to be a very awkward question, and I mean no offence.' Inoichi waited patiently. 'Where are all the Uchiha?'

Inoichi's face dropped like a stone. He looked down at his hands as he answered. 'They were wiped out in a massacre last year. There's only two known surviving members of the Uchiha clan, Uchiha Sasuke – the son of the clan head who was luckily not at the Uchiha compound at the time of the massacre – and his brother, Itachi, who was the perpetrator.'

' _Fuck_ ,' I said, with feeling. I leant back and ran a hand through my hair, astonished. 'And this Itachi escaped?'

Inoichi nodded gravely. 'Yes. He's in there,' he jerked his chin at the Bingo Book. 'He's an A-rank missing nin, but it won't be long before he's upgraded to S. I know this probably doesn't warrant saying, but just in case – the Uchiha clan is a very sensitive topic in Konoha right now.'

I cut him off with a raised hand as I nodded my understanding emphatically. 'I understand, don't worry.'

Inoichi tilted his head. 'As I recall, you worked with the Clan in developing your seals?'

'Yes, that and several envoys from Konoha were Uchiha. I knew one of them quite well actually, an Uchiha Uruchi. She was a chemist, a researcher, a few years older than me.' Uruchi had been very kind and soft, the sort of person you were surprised had become a shinobi. 'She made great bread.'

'I can try to confirm what happened to her, if you like.'

I shook my head. 'What's the point? She's dead, just like everyone else I know.' That sounded too morbid by half. I grimaced. 'I think I'm done with questions.'

Inoichi stood to leave. 'We'll see each other in a week for your check in.'

I waved a hand as I escorted him to the door. 'Don't worry, I'll be there – on time, even.'

Inoichi gave me one last smile and took his leave. I looked to my right, at the door for apartment 6-1. Not even a welcome mat outside. Hm.

Back in my apartment, I cracked open the Bingo Book. My curiosity about my new training buddy couldn't wait. I examined the profile with interest. The silver hair I'd expected, the aliases Copy Ninja Kakashi and Sharingan no Kakashi I had not. It made no sense. I continued reading. Youngest Academy Graduate ever, child prodigy, student of Namikaze Minato, the Fourth Hokage... Perhaps I'd been too harsh to deem him a mere watchdog, he _had_ to be one of their best Jounin. His profile gave the distinct impression of there being not enough space to cover anything but the basics. There was something quite flattering about being assigned as his partner, if they expected training with me to not be a complete waste of his time. Not least because he'd be blocked from taking most missions.

Kakashi was also the White Fang's son. It was still so disorienting - someone I considered my peer now had a kid my age. I hadn't known Sakumo that well and had only served with him on the front a couple of times, but the reputation that had preceded him had been well-earned. Kirin had respected him. I'd known he was married, mainly because any Konoha kunoichi within 50 feet of him had been unable to refrain from lamenting that he was no longer on the market, but I'd had no idea he was already a father. Kakashi must have been born early on or just before the War to be early twenties now. Perhaps his mother had been an Uchiha? Although with how little Uchiha liked marrying outside their Clan, surely that kind of feather ruffling would have reached us in Uzu...

The page after Kakashi was not his father, which could only mean he was deceased. Had anyone survived that fucking war aside from Sarutobi?

I flicked through the Bingo Book for any other names I recognised, and found both Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Sarutobi's students had just started to gain fame for their actions on the Ame front, last I'd heard. Both profiles were surprising – Jiraiya was not a missing nin but didn't seem to really be affiliated with Konoha any longer and was a roamer, and Orochimaru was _definitely_ a missing nin. Another S-rank missing nin. I scoffed – what was up with Konoha and producing S rank missing nin?

At that thought, I flipped to Uchiha Itachi. I blinked, then blinked again. 'What the fuck?' I asked the room at large. Itachi was thirteen. _Thirteen_. I read through his profile: another certified child genius gone off the rails. Maybe the Hokage let Kakashi be late because he was just glad he still had one prodigy loyal to the Village. I shook my head in disbelief, muttering to myself as I skimmed the rest of the Bingo Book. No other entries I recognised.

One more circuit around my new living quarters left me with an itch to redecorate. It was too bland, too white, too sterile. And the bedding was cheap and synthetic and printed with kunai and I was twenty-five years old and just _not having that_.

So I applied a few basic security seals and then set out to wander Konoha's shops. I had already forgotten most of the tour Inoichi had given, but I didn't mind and let myself get turned around. I strolled aimlessly, hoping that the squad of Anbu tailing me would get bored. They didn't, though, and got to watch the exciting scenes of me doubling back on myself and eventually buying some furniture and food. The shopkeepers were universally gobsmacked to see me put things away in my storage scroll. I asked around for directions to a shinobi supply store that also provided sealing supplies and ended up at a place called Konoha Metal. Most of their selection consisted of pointy objects and more kinds of shuriken than I considered strictly necessary, which at least explained the giant one that served as their sign outside. They had a small selection of clothing, and an even smaller display under glass of their sealing products.

They had a fairly basic array of explosive tags, elemental summoning scrolls, binding tags and storage scrolls. What really shocked me was the price. A set of four barrier tags, the only barrier seal they seemed to have, was 100,000 ryo. A basic sealing scroll with only one slot that was made by children in Uzu for practice cost 20,000 ryo. That kind of sealing array had been rendered obsolete as it was unable to coexist with other arrays on the same tag. Someone in Uzu couldn't have given this kind of scroll away for free.

A rather productive discussion with the owner, Daichi, revealed that five-slot storage scrolls would retail for “at least 40,000, most likely 50,000 ryo”. He'd offered an astonishing 50 per cent cut to get an exclusivity arrangement. Considering I could make simple ones without bells or whistles at a rate of ten an hour, maybe fifteen with practice, it would be stupidly lucrative. It almost made me feel bad accepting any stipend.

When I asked him who made the ones on display, Daichi pointed at himself. I'd known on an intellectual level that sealing would have become an esoteric art, but it still shocked me that the width and breadth of sealing supplies in Konoha was what a blacksmith could teach himself. It was just... _sad_ that this was all that was left.

The entire walk back to my apartment my mind was abuzz. I wasn't particularly concerned about the money, but it seemed such a clear opportunity to fill a need in Konoha. I could single-handedly upend the fuinjutsu supply in the Land of Fire if I chose to. It would cause absolute chaos, sure, but what a way to bring back the legacy of Uzushio!

I stopped dead in the street. Then I carried on walking, trying to play it off by stopping at a dango stall in my eyeline.

Chewing on my dango stick as I wandered through the food stalls for anything else appetising, I mused about whether it was that simple. Uzu had been destroyed because fuinjutsu was feared. I tended to forget that, think of it as a personal attack because it _had_ been personal, to me. The bigger picture was that the world had decided it didn't want sealing knowledge to be in it anymore.

Kirin had always been good seeing right to the heart of things. Maybe it wasn't about _me_ , and my personal relationship with Kirin, but _me_ as a sealing specialist. If the prices in that shop said anything about how rare a skill sealing was now, it was a powerful card to play.

The real difficulty was how to make sure the card was one that stayed in Konoha's hand. Flooding the market with seals would only make all of the Villages more deadly.

It was going to be challenging, figuring out how to make seals that couldn't be copied, but I didn't mind that. I hadn't been pushed to create something new since... arriving here, in After, and there was comfort in the idea of hours spent with ink stained fingers even if my new apartment was nothing like my old home. Even if nothing was going to feel like home, working on seals was the closest I was going to get. Seals were never going to be used again the way they were before, so I had to come up with something different. The same sort of realisation that had hardened my resolve to come to Konoha: my old life was gone, so I had to make a new one. It was that simple.

I reached the end of the food stalls and turned left, expecting to go back towards the tea district and instead finding a dead-end alley. I wondered if the new me in this life was still petty enough to disappear on my still-present tail.

Turns out, yes.

Stepping further into the alley, I dragged my thumb across the tiny knife sewed into the edge of my holster and swiped it across the side of my index finger, activating one of the seals tattooed on my skin. I waited, arms crossed as I leaned against the wall.

It took a little less than four seconds for an Anbu to appear on the building overhead. Their head jerked in alarm when they saw nothing but stacks of cardboard boxes and rubbish. The rest of their squad appeared moments later, all four of them perching overhead like oversized birds as they scanned the area. They were wearing grey vests and white masks with animal faces.

I stood up from my spot and walked back out of the alley. I turned in a circle until I found the Hokage Tower and let it guide me to my new residence. I had a smile on my face as I ducked behind another building to deactivate the seal and reemerge into the crowd. Not having any chakra beyond the bare minimum to stave off exhaustion was a pain and a half, it was tedious having to _walk_ everywhere, but at least it meant the Anbu would be scratching their heads all day to figure out how they lost me.

By the time they found me again, I was back in my apartment trialling various swatches of paint. I eventually decided on a lovely pale sea green. I dragged my sofa and kotatsu to be closer to the window and adjusted things this way and that, knowing one of the Anbu was outside my window staring at my innocent domestic bliss and my intact chakra cuffs in disbelief, and had to fight back the urge to turn and wink at them. Half the fun was letting them wonder if I knew I'd run them around, after all.

I'd have to get a house plant, I decided. Maybe tomorrow afternoon I'd stop by the Yamanaka shop Inoichi had mentioned. I sat on my armchair and surveyed my new domain. Well, it'd do.

Then I moved to the free space I'd created on the other side of the room, spread out my sealing supplies and got to work.

  
  


_**Interlude III** _

_'Oh, no,' I blurted, just as the secondary matrix flashed yellow. 'Fire!' I called just as the seal blew up._

_My ears rung as I rolled into a sitting position. I shook my head, disoriented, and stood up slowly. I'd singed right through my top and burned my skin. In fact, a bit of my top was melted onto my skin. It smelled pretty nasty._

_'Ow,' I said sadly as I stared forlornly at my ruined seal. 'Why won't it just work right, Gods damn it!' I moaned at the world at large._

_'That's the third time today. What's up, huh?' Isei called to me. He was two years older and sometimes he acted like it was twenty. I scowled at him and stuck my tongue out._

_Isei ambled over, deceptively casual. 'I can take a look at it for you,' he offered, like it was the biggest favour anyone had done anybody, ever. I squinted at him._

_'Whaddaya want in return?' I asked, a bit curt, but so fed up I wasn't really bothered that I was being rude._

_'Hmmm, well you could look at mine, I suppose.'_

_I looked at him suspiciously. 'Look at your..._ what _?'_

_Isei gaped at me. 'At my seal!' He squawked, sounding as uncomfortable as I'd hoped. His hands twitched. Probably resisting the urge to cover his junk._

_I grinned. 'Just checking.'_

_'Kids these days,' Isei grumbled to himself. 'Aren't you about twelve?'_

_'Fourteen next week,' I told him. 'And I've been on active duty nearly four years. Longer than you, I'm pretty sure.'_

_Isei scowled at me. 'Alright, I see someone's in a mood because they're managing to screw up a pretty basic barrier matrix. I'll come back next week when you're fourteen, hopefully you'll have grown up a bit to match your new age. Senpai,' he finished sarcastically and then stormed off._

_I bit my lip and tugged on my ear, feeling guilty. I hadn't known that graduating at twelve had really bothered Isei that much. His parents had put in a special request because his older brother had died a few years ago on his very first mission outside the Village. It wasn't like he got put back two years because he wasn't good enough. And Kaa-chan had always liked him, always told me—_

_I stabbed my toes into the dirt. I'd make it up to him later. Satoshi would know, he knew all the boys. Maybe Isei would like some homemade cookies? Even if he didn't, I'd make them anyway. It would make me feel better. It's what Kaa-chan would have done to say sorry._

  
  


**Kakashi**

He woke abruptly at 5 am just before his alarm like usual, the faintest tinges of light in the sky as he made a quick breakfast. By half past he was at the Monument. He spent his usual time there, finishing off with a quick hour-long training session.

He checked in on Naruto after that, finding him asleep upside down with his head shoved off the side of his bed and his mouth open. Just like always, the sight of the blond was a knife to the gut. Naruto was nine and a half years old already. In a few months, it would be a full decade since Kakashi had lost the last of everyone he really cared about. He momentarily thought of the dramatic waterworks that thought would trigger in Gai, then shrugged it off.

A mental review of his calendar confirmed it was a Sunday. He didn't need to figure out some creative way to wake Naruto up in time for his classes, so he left.

He wandered aimlessly for the next few hours, popping into a bookshop to check just in case for any new _Icha Icha_ even though he knew it was futile and leaving disappointed. He stole Genma's lunch and ate it on a rooftop, basking in his enjoyment of the pilfered onigiri that was exceeded only by his enjoyment of Genma's despair at finding his food gone again. The echoes reached him just fine from his perch, and he visualised Genma's toothpick wiggling with extreme agitation with relish. He knew that Genma knew it was him, but he had yet to catch him. It was Genma's own fault for making such good lunches – Kakashi had sampled everyone's unattended goods in the Jounin lounge at some point or another, and Genma's were consistently the best.

He was not, he liked to think, a complete and unrepentant asshole – he'd buy Genma a round or two at the monthly get together next weekend. Which would only taunt Genma all the more, because everybody knew Kakashi didn't pay for shit unless it was payback for something.

Kakashi smiled as he lounged in the sun and read his book. He waited until the nicest, hottest part of the day had passed and then leisurely made his way to training ground twenty-three.

He found an irate but resigned Hokage, a gaggle of med-nin, at least two full Anbu teams seeded in the trees, and the Anbu Commander himself. In the middle of it was the unknown quantity that had forced him to remain off-mission and on-base.

She was quite unremarkable dressed in the black variation of the standard uniform. Aside from the bright red hair. It looked so much like Kushina's that it took him back those nine years in an instant. Unlike Kushina, whose eyes had always been bright and amused, this imitation looked pissed all the way off.

He did not like her. She was lucky her eyes were a normal boring brown or he'd have hated her.

He pushed past that and focused on her second holster peeking out from underneath her jacket and the fact that she'd left her ankles unwrapped. Implied she needed access to her skin, potentially a longer-range fighter that used projectiles. Commander being here said she was Anbu bait, speed and hand-to-hand was likely to be good.

'Kakashi, good of you to join us,' Sarutobi said with forced calm, a vein ticking in his temple. 'This is Uzumaki Kohaku. Kohaku-san, this is Hatake Kakashi, one of our most elite Jounin.' Sarutobi said the words with no disdain, only a hint of reluctance.

'Happy to be here!' Kakashi said with a sardonic smile and a jaunty wave. He just about heard Sarutobi sigh and knew that his Hokage was about three seconds away from snapping at him to cut the bullshit.

'I apologise on Kakashi's behalf for his lateness,' Sarutobi said eventually to Kohaku, when Kakashi made no move to apologise himself.

Kohaku gave a sardonic smile. 'No apologies needed, after all, four hours is enough time for my chakra to have replenished substantially.'

Kakashi was, in all honesty, quite pissed off that an alleged Uzumaki had popped up out of nowhere apparently _months_ ago and he hadn't heard a thing about it until _yesterday_ when the Hokage summoned him to tell him that not only would he be meeting said Uzumaki tomorrow for a combat assessment but that he would also be her training partner for the foreseeable future. Oh, and she'd been moved into the flat he'd been studiously keeping empty for the past two years while he was away. When he'd asked his Hokage what was going on and what he was playing at, he'd been sent out of the room with his tail between his legs. He'd misread how stressed the old man was about the situation and paid for it with ignorance.

So he wasn't worried that he'd allowed the odds to even up in her favour. He was more than ready to work out his frustration on his poor, poor unsuspecting victim.

'Glad to be of use,' Kakashi said, continuing his unbothered affectation. 'Rules for this bout, Hokage-sama?'

'The usual – no killing blows, no severely incapacitating blows, bout will end when I call it or until forfeit or knockout. Stay within this training ground and do your best not to _completely_ destroy it. Any questions, Kohaku-san?' Sarutobi gave her a quick glance, but she shook her head.

'Very well,' Sarutobi said as he stepped back towards the group of other spectators. 'You may begin.'

Kakashi stayed where he was. He thought about taking out his book, but reckoned that would be too provocative, even for him. Particularly when he knew absolutely nothing about his opponent. He just looked at her and waited for her to make the first move.

She came at him quick and low to the ground, coming in with a leg sweep followed with an uppercut he tilted his head to avoid. She twisted, avoiding his own jab to her solar plexus in retaliation and kicking out her heel lightning quick, forcing him to take a step back. As his foot touched the ground she came at him again. He focused on defence for the next few minutes, not doing more than sidestepping unless he had to.

Kakashi's eye narrowed as she made another tiny abortive movement. She kept going for a killing blow and rerouting. Hmm.

He blocked a jab and then came at her with a sideswipe kick to her leg. She hopped back but he was already on her again, elbow heading for her neck as she ducked, right into a follow on kick ready and heading straight for her forehead. She bent backwards into a flip, her feet sweeping upwards. He spun to the side, foot striking out to catch her in the head. She pushed off with her hands just in time, spinning in the air rather than following through with her backflip and allowing his leg to pass underneath her. She came off the spin stomping down, hoping to catch his leg but instead converting the momentum into a flying lariat that he blocked with the back of his hand. Even with his other arm providing support, he felt the impact shudder through him and unbalance him the slightest bit.

She backed away instead of using the opening, giving him a tight smile that more showed off her teeth than anything else. The whole exchange had taken at most thirty seconds. He'd been right on the speed, at least.

Kakashi let her go, his mind startling to whirl as they circled each other a little. The way she fought – reactive, opportunistic, unpredictable – was another thing that reminded him uncomfortably of Kushina. It was certainly unrestrained in the way Kushina had been, someone who had learned the katas to set forms but used them only sparingly, where convenient.

Kohaku drew her hands together. Kakashi drew up his headband and let his Sharingan take in her handseals, caught her surprised little jitter. Earth move – he predicted what it would be before she finished and leapt upwards, coming down and sticking to the side of one of the spikes that had thrust up from the ground. He retaliated with a wave of lighting energy that blasted the front few rows of her own earth spikes back at her. Kohaku slammed her hands down in another Earth technique that he didn't recognise – it seemed to both crumble the ground between them into a basin at the same time as creating a rising shelf that protected her from the debris.

It also put her out of his sight. Shit. He created a Lightning clone immediately had it sink underground. He stayed where he was, considering summoning his ninken. He dismissed the idea; a Lightning hound would do. He readied himself, waiting again for his opponent to make the first move. They'd demonstrated some hand to hand, some elemental release, what next?

He glanced down at the faintest trickling sound. Water was rising, seeping through the cracks in the ground and rapidly filling the basin. He ascended to the top of his rock pillar, scanning the field with his Sharingan and seeing nothing. Earth user; was she underground, with his clone?

Wait.

He felt his Sharingan focus and spin as he caught the slightest glimmer to his right. Some kind of concealment technique.

Displaced air on his left had Kakashi ducking on instinct, dodging something that cleanly swept off the top of the pillar. He dropped to the water and immediately regretted it as coils rose to attack him and casually formed into dragons as they did so. Kakashi countered with an earth dome, which began to disintegrate almost immediately. He was already gone, having used Shunshin to clear the distance to the edge of the basin.

Kohaku reappeared, rising from the ground in front of him. A split-second later a tremor rumbled through the training ground – Kakashi got the memories from his Lightning clone, dispelled from an explosion but it was unclear how it had been set off. Kohaku used the momentary disorientation to leap forward and draw a tanto. Kakashi took a second too long to draw a kunai to parry and had to hold it at an awkward angle. Kohaku grinned at him over their crossed weapons as seals raced down her blade. Wind soon followed and his own weapon creaked ominously.

Kakashi disengaged and leapt back. It wasn't often that he wished he had his father's sword to hand, but this was definitely one of those times. There was little point using regular kunai against a wind-coated weapon and trying to counter by channeling fire through his kunai was not going to work.

More importantly, he'd just seen Kohaku unseal that tanto from her own fucking arm. The cloth of her shirt had ripped and he could see through it to a glowing blue tattoo. He gave her a gimlet stare, aiming for unimpressed.

Any further thoughts were cut off by Kohaku leaping at him, going in for a series of fast strikes. She was proficient with the blade, granted, and he went through six kunai just parrying her.

His mind went into overdrive as he catalogued her proficiencies. He needed to get rid of her weapon and get them back to hand-to-hand or to ninjutsu, then he could begin layering genjutsu. He hadn't originally planned to use illusions as it was more difficult for the observers to assess skills, but he hadn't anticipated Kohaku's skill level. If he'd prepared properly, it would have been over by now – but he'd been an arrogant prick and let her set the field. He'd be annoyed with himself, later.

Kakashi saw the shimmer again as he spun away from Kohaku and he threw himself towards it, his foot landing square in the middle. He heard an 'oof', and another Kohaku momentarily appeared, her hands braced around his foot, before she switched with the tanto-wielding clone behind him, which promptly burst into lightning. Kakashi channeled lightning chakra through his own body, dispelling the momentary paralysis, and immediately turned to face the probably original Kohaku, who unsealed her tanto again so casually that it _did_ annoy him. She used the movement to hide her attempt to cast an illusion on him, which he was tempted to let run its course for a second or two just to see what it was, but that would be beyond reckless, so he dispelled it immediately.

Kohaku's wry smile told him that she'd known a genjutsu was pointless. He returned the favour with a two-layered illusion of both a haze and a double image. Kohaku rolled her shoulders and cycled her chakra roughly as she squatted into a low kenjutsu stance with a reverse grip that he didn't immediately recognise, breaking both techniques at once. Kakashi's lips flattened and he drew his hands together.

'That's enough,' the Hokage's voice called.

Kakashi relaxed into a standing position and withdrew one of his novels, flipping through it lazily to his place. He ignored his opponent and how they put their weapon away.

Sarutobi approached them. The mednin dispersed quietly in the background. The Anbu contracted around their position.

'That was... illuminating. Thank you for the demonstration of your abilities.'

Kohaku bowed politely and properly. Kakashi half-bowed with his book still in his hand.

'Would you mind withdrawing your tanto, Kohaku-san?' Sarutobi queried, and despite his best intentions to appear uninterested, Kakashi lowered his novel just enough to peer over it.

Kohaku rolled up her sleeve, revealing that her entire arm was... bare? She pressed two fingers to her forearm just below her elbow, and the chakra-blue tattoo briefly appeared, followed almost instantaneously by the sword which Kohaku plucked out of the air by the hilt with the ease of practice.

Sarutobi was silent for some moments, watching Kohaku re-seal the tanto. The seal on her skin faded back into nothingness a few seconds later.

'Extraordinary. I've never heard of such an application of sealing.'

'Body seals were rare but not unheard of, they're not something developed myself as a concept,' Kohaku offered evenly.

The Hokage nodded and was silent for a few seconds. 'You have developed your own seals - illusion seals. I believe you used one during the bout?'

'I used two, actually. One to cast the genjutsu on Kakashi-san, and one to hide myself.' Her eyes were on Kakashi. 'I knew it was not going to be entirely successful against a Sharingan, but even so it provides some level of concealment.' She channeled chakra visibly on her thumb and pressed it against the top of her index finger just below the first joint. She vanished. Standing still, Kakashi could see that the shimmer had her outline. He pulled his headband back down and even that disappeared. She was completely invisible to a non-doujutsu user. Kakashi was beyond being surprised at this point.

Kohaku once again visible, Sarutobi glanced at Kakashi and Kakashi stared back. He must have adequately conveyed his deep desire to know what the fuck was going on, because the Hokage sighed, already extracting his pipe.

'Well, you weren't supposed to be there for this, but you'd best come along, Kakashi. Come, we'll talk in my office.'

Kakashi ambled behind the Hokage and the Uzumaki, who had quietly let herself get put back in chakra cuffs. He stared at her over his _Icha Icha_ like he wanted to burn a hole right through the Uzumaki spiral on her flak jacket or her stupid red hair.

'Tell me, have you used that before while in the Village?' Sarutobi gestured to Kohaku's hand with his pipe.

Kohaku coughed into a hand. 'Yes.'

Sarutobi sighed. 'There's no point having my Anbu tail you, is there?'

'I felt it was polite to only disappear on them once.'

Kakashi was pretty sure that Tenzo was involved in tailing her. He was not going to find it amusing that his little kouhai had been given the run around. He was not. Particularly not when Tenzo was part of the Hokage's guard right now and was probably listening to this with a serious facial tick. He glared at the pages of his book. It wasn't funny.

They arrived at the Hokage's office and Sarutobi sat down heavily. Kakashi leaned against the wall and put the book away, eyes inevitably drawn to Kohaku.

'Kakashi, I'm sure you have questions.' Sarutobi massaged his forehead. 'Kohaku, why don't you explain who you are and how you got here.'

Kohaku, stood at attention in front of the desk, opened her mouth a couple of times and faltered. She met Kakashi's gaze and then blurted out: 'I'm from Uzushiogakure. The actual Village. I was sealed into stasis shortly before the Village fell during the Second War. I woke up a few months ago.'

Kakashi blinked. He straightened up and uncrossed his arms, and blinked again. He looked at the Hokage, who predicted the question and waved an impatient hand. 'Yes, yes, her identity has been confirmed. Inoichi did a full Mind Transmission and Kohaku has also corroborated my own recollections.'

Kakashi took a few seconds to process this. He looked at Kohaku again. Her red hair suddenly seemed less stupid.

'Who are you, in the context of Uzu?' He asked.

Kohaku huffed out an awkward chuckle. 'I thought the same thing about _you_. I was Kirin's student, and one of the members of Uzu's first and only Anbu team.'

'Kirin. I know that name.' Even as he said it, he wanted to bite his tongue – to be from Kohaku's era, that meant...

Kohaku nodded. 'Kirin knew your father. The first time I met him, the White Fang was already on friendly terms with my Sensei. They must have run missions together prior to the War.'

'My father is dead,' Kakashi told her.

Kohaku looked at him askance. 'I figured that out from his absence in the Bingo Book.' Her gaze moved away, towards the window and the view of the Village. She gave an uncomfortable shrug as she glanced back at him, and he knew she was trying to trace through his mask all the features that made him look so much like his father. She didn't say anything further though, and looked back at the Hokage instead.

Sarutobi anticipated her question. 'Holding your own against Kakashi and my knowledge of your background means you'll be recognised as Jounin when you formally join the Village. Before that can happen, we're waiting on my erstwhile student Jiraiya to put to bed any concerns about your identity. So for now, you will train with Kakashi and familiarise yourself with the Village. No missions, yet. You'll receive the basic Jounin salary which should be enough to support yourself – if you run into any financial issues, you can discuss those with me.'

She nodded. 'Yes, Hokage-sama.'

Sarutobi extracted a Bingo Book from his desk and threw it to Kohaku, helping to cover the awkward moment of Kohaku clearly still getting acclimatised to the idea of having a Hokage to bow to. 'And the Konoha version of the Bingo Book, as Inoichi promised.'

Kohaku tapped it, looking thoughtful. She tucked it away into her flak jacket. 'On finances... would there be any restriction on drawing seals and having them retailed in Konoha's shops?'

Sarutobi gave Kakashi a significant look that, summarised, meant _don't you fuck this up_ , before he responded. 'My recollection is that seals were not shared so freely in Uzushio.'

Kokaku drew herself up subtly. 'Uzushio no longer exists. What worked in Uzu will not work here. We don't have a pool of experienced Seal Masters to train the younger generations. Sealing will need to be something different if it's going to survive at all.'

Sarutobi puffed on his pipe. 'You may be right – outside of Jiraiya, myself and Kakashi are some of the only people in Konoha to have any knowledge the art of sealing. Most rely on pre-made explosive tags and storage scrolls.'

Kohaku looked over at Kakashi like Sarutobi had just told her he'd hung the moon. Well, a little kinder, anyway. 'When Inoichi-san said our skills would be well-matched, I didn't think he meant _that_ well-matched.'

Kakashi waved a hand, feeling a little self-conscious. 'Saa, I get the feeling my sealing knowledge is a drop in the ocean to you.'

'Even so, it'll be useful. I'm planning to rework seals from the ground up, my main aim is to ensure they can't be replicated.' Kakashi frowned a little in confusion at her. She raised her hands outwards, palm up. 'I know, it goes against sealing fundamentals. I'm talking about seals for mass distribution. Storage, explosions, barriers, that kind of thing. Speaking of which,' she rubbed her nose. 'I don't suppose you have a storage scroll on you?'

'Yes,' he answered slowly.

'In Konoha Metal they only had single-slot storage scrolls. On display, at least.'

Sarutobi interjected that Jounin got a six compartment storage scroll. Kohaku looked scandalised, and not in a good way. ' _Six_ compartments? You must run out of space all the time. Please tell me the slots can hold significant mass.'

Kakashi ran through mentally what his storage scroll contained – camping supplies, medical supplies, a spare uniform, weapons, and his Bingo Books. He looked at his Hokage to confirm, who gestured for him to unroll it across the desk.

Kohaku initially just examined the seals. Then she pressed her index finger to the one closest to the outside and closed her eyes. 'About sixty kunai and eighty shuriken. Is that max capacity?' She asked him, opening one eye. Kakashi nodded and she closed her eye again. Then she channeled a spike of chakra, and a single kunai appeared.

'I don't know why I felt the need to do that. I can see there's no security measures on this,' she said wryly. She resealed the kunai. From her own holster, she drew out what must have been her own storage scroll and unrolled it next to his. Kakashi counted – thirty-six compartments. The length of the storage scroll wasn't even that much greater, as the seals for each compartment were significantly smaller and more tightly spaced. Kohaku looked at Kakashi curiously. 'Out of interest, can you see anything different about the seals on mine with the Sharingan?'

He lifted his headband. He wasn't particularly surprised to see that eight of the compartments closest to the inside of the scroll had networks of pulsing blue chakra winding around them. He relayed this to Kohaku who nodded. 'Yes, those compartments are locked. They can only be unlocked with my chakra signature. If you try to unlock this one,' she tapped her finger on the fourth compartment, 'you'll get access to my kunai. If you try to access any of those, nothing will happen.'

'May I try?' The Hokage asked politely, and Kohaku stepped back. Sarutobi pressed one palm down on each of the indicated compartments. One the one side, six kunai appeared, and on the other – nothing. 'It feels as if it's empty,' Sarutobi reported.

'What's the capacity on yours?' Kakashi asked, and once again immediately regretted it. Kohaku pressed down on her weapons compartment and what must have been close to a thousand projectiles appeared on the Hokage's desk. He caught Kohaku's eyes over the huge pile of kunai and shuriken; crinkled in amusement. She resealed them all in one fell swoop, even the ones that had fallen to the floor.

'Pretty high,' she said, smirking. 'Oh, and also, because Inoichi seemed surprised to see this when we examined some of my memories—' she pressed her finger against the sixth compartment and a bunch of grapes appeared.

Kakashi mused at how surreal this whole situation was. He now lived in a world with people that sealed away fruit.

Sarutobi looked delighted as he leaned forward to pick them up. 'I know these – the Aki Queen variety, correct?'

'Yes. Have them, if you like.'

Sarutobi tried one and seemed pleased, as he immediately popped several more in his mouth before he offered one to Kakashi. 'They're delicious. I have to admit I remember that Uzu shinobi would always have lots of fresh food stored away, but sadly I never got my hands on my own food storage seal.'

Kakashi ate his grape. It was good. He was overcome with a momentary daydream of having fresh food to eat instead of rations. He imagined the faces of his comrades as he unsealed a veritable cornucopia of fresh fruit, or baked goods, or a whole bento box, or a hot bowl of miso soup... 'Can you seal hot food?'

Kohaku tapped her nose, grinning, and then the sixth compartment. A steaming hot bowl of ramen appeared. Kakashi reached for it on instinct – because it smelled _really_ good – and Kohaku resealed it before his fingers could touch it. She was back to looking at him with daggers in her eyes. 'That's one of my last bowls from Uzu's best ramen stand. Not a chance.'

Kakashi pouted.

Sarutobi brought them back to the salient point. 'Kohaku, are you saying you can replicate your storage scroll for mass production?'

'Not precisely.' Kohaku ate one of the grapes. 'I built this to my own specifications, so it's designed specifically for someone who goes undercover on long-term missions, in wartime. It's too geared for food provisions and litter for persona.' Kakashi's interest was piqued. At least his new training partner wasn't boring. 'Broadly speaking, there's two ways you approach storage scrolls. Ones designed for the shinobi holder, and ones designed for the mission. Shinobi-side, I can make ones I hope will hit most of the right notes for most shinobi, or I can customise them for specific shinobi which can incorporate some of the mission-side as mine does. Then totally-mission side will be as needed, through really my experience with that is only in deepcover and exfiltration work.'

Sarutobi leaned back in his chair. He had his extra thoughtful face on. 'Either way would be a serious undertaking. We have hundreds of Jounin.' He chewed on his pipe a while, watching as Kohaku ate grapes and waited for him to make a decision. 'I suppose it depends on whether you're willing to spend a lot of time in the Village doing sealing, versus being out on missions.'

'I can make ten of these in an hour,' Kohaku clarified as she tapped Kakashi's storage scroll. 'To make something with a couple of extra bells and whistles like food storage and security measures with around... eighteen compartments? I'd still be able to do one or two an hour. Not counting the use of Shadow Clones and practice.' She munched on her grape, ignoring both of her companions' shocked glances at each other to this news.

'And the customised scrolls?'

Kohaku spread her hands out in a gesture of uncertainty. 'It really depends on what they want and how difficult that is to integrate into a storage scroll. Konoha shinobi needs are going to be different by default to Uzu shinobi who always had other existing seals that they were supplementing. There's no way really to tell before I've done a few. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say one a day. I could do with a guinea pig,' she finished as she slid her eyes over to Kakashi.

'Kakashi can be your first guinea pig,' Sarutobi confirmed. Kakashi tried not to crow with glee. He was going to have so much fun sealing things away into lockable compartments. Genma's lunch, Gai's bodysuits, Asuma's cigarettes...

He was drawn back to the present with Sarutobi's intent reiteration on the question of what Kohaku wanted to focus her time on.

Kohaku ran a hand through the little piece of fringe that hung outside of her braid and tugged on it hard. 'I don't rightly know. Mainly I just know that I'd rather be busy than not.'

Sarutobi looked at her... not quite kindly, Kakashi would say, but maybe sympathetically. After all, Sarutobi had participated in all three wars, albeit only on the frontlines in the first. 'I understand,' the Hokage told her. 'You don't need to make a decision now.'

Kohaku nodded on a sigh. 'My thinking was that right now while I'm not on missions, I might as well get started. I can build up a nice backlog on storage scrolls and figure out how to recreate other seals so they cannot be copied. And work with my guinea pig on other ideas,' the corners of her mouth lifted and her hands started sketching in the air in front of her as she spoke.

Maybe her constantly reminding him of Kushina would sting less with exposure therapy?

Kakashi fidgeted as Sarutobi started winding the conversation down, reminding Kohaku that she was still on probation. When he dismissed them both, they stood awkwardly on the threshold.

Kakashi stuck to his usual tactics for such situations: he disappeared.

He arrived at the Memorial a moment later, and a ran a hand through his hair as he sat. 'Well, where to begin...'


	4. Chapter 4

**Kohaku IV**

I liked that the sky was the same no matter where you went. Sometimes, just like right now, I'd look up at it after an intense training session and pretend I was still home. I'd close my eyes and imagine we were all splayed out on the sand just like normal. Stolen little moments of peace. I used to have more of them, outside of these little fantasies and those seconds just after waking up, before I opened my eyes and saw my still slightly rundown box apartment.

If I were less dysfunctional, it would probably worry me. Instead, I mainly just didn't mention it to either my shrink or Inoichi.

I rolled onto my side and propped my head up onto my elbow, examining my training partner critically as he pretended he wasn't as winded as I was. His hand was trembling ever so slightly around his book.

'What?' He asked, not looking at me.

I chewed my lip. I'd spent the last few weeks in an odd limbo. It seemed like everybody was waiting, but I wasn't entirely clear on _what_.

'I don't suppose you happen to know what everybody is studiously _not_ telling me?' I asked him.

Kakashi looked at me then. 'I'm sure there's lots of things they don't tell you.' His try for condescending came off evasive.

I rolled my eyes and flopped onto my back, tucking my arms behind my head and watching him from the corner of my eye. 'I know there's _something_. I'm just letting you know, if you knew about it and didn't say anything to me, I _will_ make you suffer.'

Kakashi looked like he wanted to roll his eyes right back at me, but instead he got to his feet and tried to stretch without making it obvious he was trying to get a nasty crick out of his back. 'See you later,' he said.

Then he shunsined away. I rolled my eyes again to the sky. 'Why does he always feel the need to do that?' I asked the world at large.

I made my way back on foot. The chakra cuffs had come off two weeks ago, as a reward for my continued good behaviour, but I found myself at a loss of what to do so often that I'd stuck to walking everywhere. I got home and greeted my empty apartment, knowing Kakashi was at home right next door.

The Hatake steadfastly refused to spend any time with me outside training, including even just... walking home together. At first, I'd wondered my way through myriad reasons for such blatantly antisocial behaviour. It seemed as simple as Kakashi not having many friends. If any. He was more of a recluse than I was, without the excuse of being transplanted from another Village.

I would have thought he was lonely, but he went to such great lengths to avoid socialising that I'd just written his misanthropy down as one of his many, many quirks. Then again, one time a random dude in a _tight_ green bodysuit had literally thrown himself into our training session and started reciting poetry about flowers at top volume, so maybe I just didn't appreciate how weird the other Konoha Jounin were. Kakashi had transported himself about ten feet underground to avoid talking to who turned out to be Might Gai, and I'd had the strangest conversation of my life. Lots of _vigorous_ , and _youth_. Then I'd gotten into a taijutsu spar with him, just to annoy Kakashi. He deserved it for trapping himself underground like that.

I stared at the mess of drafts, notes and partially finished seals covering one side of my living room floor. I debated running the risk of sealing it all away... but these flimsy Konoha walls just weren't reinforced enough for potential explosions. My walls had been improved of course, but that wouldn't help the flat beneath me if my sturdy box crashed through their ceiling. I sighed and dropped to sit on the floor. I listlessly poked at a few pieces of paper, identifying a few attempts that were clearly not going anywhere and could be trashed.

In the first couple of weeks, I had barely slept I'd worked so hard. I had a steady supply of improved storage scrolls making their way to Konoha Metal, seeing as I did a six-slot scroll whenever I needed to relax and needed to keep my mind just occupied enough.

It was working on anything new that I struggled with. It just wasn't _right_ , working on my own. I'd never lacked for people to bounce ideas and drafts off of before: Kirin, Umiko, Isei, literally anyone in Sealing HQ. Hell, even Mount Rashiri had been a popular spot to trial new seals – being close but not _too_ close – so if my usual suspects were away from the Village I could just wander over there and poke the brains of whoever was busy trying not to blow themselves up. Uzumaki were very open and welcoming, and although we were wary of writing down our seals where they might be stolen by outsiders, we shared information freely with one another and liked to collaborate. I had so many fond memories of shared eureka moments and figuring out just how to get something to work. The frenzy of when thoughts aligned just right and we had to scribble things down before inspiration was lost. That kind of feeling was what had gotten me addicted to sealing.

Konoha was very different. Clans kept to themselves and protected information about their abilities judiciously, which I'd already known. What I hadn't anticipated was how ordinary Konoha shinobi just... were not interested in working together. Not just Kakashi, who seemed reticent to share anything, but the Hokage had sent out the message to the Jounin forces that I was willing to work one on one with anyone to develop new seals and... nothing. It looked like he was going to have to _order_ them to work with me.

It made sense. Konoha wasn't one big family of Uzumaki and their sister clans or adoptees. It made sense, but it still hurt, as well as being humiliating. It smarted; even within Uzushio, people had known my seals were good and on occasion people had tripped over themselves to work with me.

But I couldn't blame Konoha for not treating me the same. Why should they care? This wasn't a home, this wasn't family. I didn't know how to start feeling that way about Konoha. I mainly felt like I was on a long-term mission, which... was fine. It worked so I was sticking with that.

Sarutobi had refused to comment on when I would be able to start going on actual missions. I prodded my pile of papers mulishly again. Not even allowed a C rank. Apparently they'd also created a rank below C of in-Village chores for civilian exposure, and I wasn't even able to do those – the Powers That Be were still figuring out how to announce me or not announce me to the world at large. Only the Jounin forces had any idea I existed and that wasn't because it had been properly explained, more they just knew that a sealing expert was now in town and they could get better supplies. So I was banned from talking about myself for now. I spoke only to those cleared by the Hokage – that mainly meant Kakashi and Inoichi. I scowled and prodded the papers harder as my thoughts again returned to exactly who I'd turn to for companionship right now if I could.

Every time I thought wistfully of my family, I'd inevitably start crying. I was sick of being a mopey, morose, maudlin little bitch about it. They were gone and they weren't coming back, and I needed to get that through my stupid head so I could think about them without bursting into tears.

An Anbu appeared at my window. I was fairly certain they waited until I was agitated to summon me. I couldn't argue that I didn't deserve it.

It was a quick hop across to the top of the Admin Tower. Sarutobi gave me a playfully baleful look when I slunk in through the window. 'Kakashi is a bad influence on you,' he said.

'Should have thought of that before you stuck me with him,' I told him breezily as I made my way to stand in front of his desk, still feeling my way through when being irreverent was alright. I slipped out of imitating Kakashi. 'You needed me, Hokage-sama?'

Sarutobi considered me for a few seconds and then went straight in: 'We need to discuss whether the Uzumaki clan should be formally recognised as a Clan of Konoha.'

I blinked hard, and suppressed my immediate question on why I would want that kind of attention. The Hokage gave me some time to chew things over. 'Would you support it?' I asked him, not having had any bright ideas.

'Yes,' came the immediate reply. 'You're sharing Uzumaki sealing knowledge with Konoha and have said you're willing to take on students in the future – that should be recognised by the Village. Once you start going on missions you'll be doing as much if not more for the Village than any other Jounin in the standard corps.'

I nodded, and said nothing about how it would be useful for Sarutobi to have another Clan Head that didn't have ulterior motives and was likely to support his future decisions. That was a thought – Clan Head.

'This might be a technicality, but can you have a Clan with only one member?'

Sarutobi gave me a long look, and the ground started to shift beneath my feet. I stumbled to a chair and sat down, my knees shaking. I bit my lip. 'Really?' I asked him, clearing my throat in annoyance when it came out in a hoarse whisper. I wanted to be angry with him for holding out on me, but there wasn't space. Instead all I felt was hope, and so much elation I thought I might burst.

'He's not a full Uzumaki, but his mother was from your Clan. She was in Konoha when Uzu fell.'

'Was?' I confirmed, voice still all wobbly.

Sarutobi nodded sadly. 'Unfortunately, she died in the Kyuubi attack nine years ago. His father died even before that.' He sighed. 'I've tried to keep an eye on him, but I'm afraid he's...' He trailed off, looking guilty. 'Lonely.'

I frowned sadly.

'Can I meet him?' my voice came out low, and then I met the Hokage's eye and my voice strengthened. 'You must. I have to meet him.'

Sarutobi nodded slowly. 'Yes, but please – I don't need him knowing that you are another Uzumaki just yet. He'll get very attached to you. You need to be sure you want that before we tell him anything.'

'Of course,' I said.

Not that there was any doubt in my mind. Sarutobi was insane if he thought that I'd turn away another Uzumaki, half or not.

I wanted to question him further, but I got the distinct feeling that would be unwelcome, so I'd keep my peace. The important thing was that I got to meet my only living relative.

'Alright, so what do we say?' I asked, unable to keep some of the excitement thrumming through my blood out of my voice.

Sarutobi opened his mouth to answer, and was interrupted when a blond rocketed into the room. 'Hokage-jiji! You promised me raaaamen today!' The rocket exclaimed, arms akimbo. He bounced on the spot several times.

In a moment, I understood. _This_ was what they had all been carefully not mentioning.

'Naruto, I'm still in a meeting,' Sarutobi reprimanded in a half-hearted attempt at stern. 'You weren't due for another ten minutes.'

'Sorry Hokage-jiji! I'm just _so_ hungry _now_!' Naruto spun in place and caught sight of me. He squinted suspiciously. 'Hey, who're you?'

Trying not to stare, I swallowed down my feelings, my surprise at the lack of red hair – it was a dominant gene, half-Uzumaki that didn't have the red hair were extremely rare. But a glance at the Hokage confirmed that this was who we'd just been discussing. 'I'm Kohaku,' I told Naruto with an attempt at a smile.

'Nice to meet ya! Do you like ramen?' He asked me. It sounded like this was a very important thing for him to know about me.

'I _love_ ramen,' I informed him solemnly.

Naruto waved his arms about as he turned back to the Hokage, who was watching him with barely concealed fondness. 'Jiji! We gotta take her to Ichiraku!' He turned back to me. 'You're gunna love it, it's the best ramen ever, dattebayo!'

'Kohaku-san, you're welcome to join us. We won't get any peace to finish our meeting now, anyway,' Sarutobi said, giving Naruto an admonishing look that was met with a sheepish grin.

I played along. 'Of course, I'd be happy to come.'

Naruto was very excitable the whole way there. I kept looking at him. He didn't look like an Uzumaki, but he _felt_ like one. He reminded me quite a lot of Satoshi, who had had that same indefatigable exuberance. Not to mention his chakra was enough to bask in.

I saw the looks directed his way. They jittered away just as quick when they saw who was walking beside him. Naruto would momentarily go quiet before picking up volume again. He did not seem confused at the animosity.

The ramen stand was tiny, but it felt like stepping into another little world, one where people smiled at Naruto. I glanced over at the kid's happy little face, turned upwards like a sunflower finally getting some light, and my heart swelled with sympathy. I was powerless to stop the protective instinct that made me sit on his other side rather than next to the Hokage.

He had terrible table manners, and absolutely no shame. Things were going to be just fine, I thought with a smile as I stirred my noodles. We were going to get along just fine.

Even if I was going to have to instil in him the importance of not talking with his mouth full with extreme prejudice.

  
  


_**Interlude IV** _

_'Why do we keep trying the same things over and over? Literally insanity,' I griped as I felt up my ribs. Bruised, not broken. I could work with that._

_'Shut up, would you – he'll find us!' Satoshi whispered._

_I stared at him. 'Sensei absolutely positively knows where we are, Sato. He's just giving us a minute to rest.'_

_Satoshi made a face at me. 'Still shouldn't make it easy. Alright, let's try something new then. Why not switch up positions in formation?'_

_Mitsuo stopped rubbing his temple for a moment. 'Formation six, with me and Kohaku switched?' He shot me a glance. 'Good with that?'_

_That put me as the front-liner directly engaging with Sensei in hand to hand. I sucked on my teeth. 'Can't hurt to try, these ribs are going to be a problem, though.'_

_'Ugh!' Satoshi exclaimed in disgust. 'You taijutsu people, all the same.' He leaned forward and ran a glowing green palm over my side. The pain numbed to a dull ache._

_'Thanks.'_

_'You can thank me properly by letting me know when you need healing straightaway next time, Kohaku,' he ground out irritably._

_'Yes, Kaa-san,' I said, and only got half a second to appreciate my teammates' shocked faces before Sensei appeared at the lip of our crater and we scattered._

  
  


**Naruto**

This Kohaku-lady was odd, Naruto thought. Not a bad odd, of course! But odd.

She looked at him funny. Not the kind of funny that other people did, like he smelled bad or had done something naughty when he _hadn't_. Kohaku-lady looked at him like...

He glanced at her as he slurped up his broth. She was already turned away, focussed on her own food, but he was _very_ sure she'd just been looking at him. He scratched his cheek. Maybe it was the whiskers? He'd noticed that nobody else had marks like his. He'd asked Jiji where they came from once, and Sarutobi had said he didn't really know. Naruto kinda liked them; he was special! So of course he had special marks.

He was allowed three bowls of ramen before Hokage-jiji told him he couldn't have any more. Naruto _said_ that he could eat more, but Jiji didn't seem to understand. Another time! Naruto promised to himself.

The Kohaku-lady asked Hokage-Jiji if there was anywhere nice to go in Konoha, so they started walking to a park. Naruto could only come here when he was with Sarutobi-sama. It had lots of water, Naruto liked that – and the ducks. The groundskeeper gave him a nasty look as they walked by, but Naruto knew he wouldn't say anything with Jiji there so he ignored the mean old man.

'Hey, hey, are you new to Konoha, 'ttebayo?' Naruto asked curiously as the lady with the red hair looked around like she'd never been there before.

She gave him the kind of smile that the old man did sometimes, when he remembered his son or his wife who Naruto knew was Biwako-san because Jiji had told him all about her and Naruto had listened very carefully. Grown ups confused Naruto sometimes, they smiled even when they were sad even though smiles were for when you were happy. Nobody ever said they were smiling wrong, though, so Naruto wouldn't either. And Jiji had told him that sometimes people wanted to look happy because they didn't want to worry anyone, and Naruto thought he understood. Sorta.

'I am, Naruto. I've only been to Konoha a few times, and they were a long time ago. Before you were born, even.'

He was astonished. 'Before I was _born_? How old are you?'

Jiji started to tell him that was rude to ask, but the new lady just laughed. 'I've been a shinobi for fifteen years, Naruto-kun. That old.'

Naruto didn't even know what to say to that. She didn't look _that_ old! Until it occurred to him.

'Whoa, are you a Jounin? Do you know any cool jutsu? Can you teach me?' Naruto bounced excitedly in place.

Lady-san smiled at him. She was really pretty, Naruto thought.

'I am a Jounin. As to whether I can teach you, that's not my decision.'

Naruto bounced some more. He was so excited he nearly hopped right off the path and into the lake.

'Jiji! Can she teach me?' He asked. It would be so cool to have his own Jounin-san! The other kids at the Academy would be so jealous and he would beat them all in spars and maybe even Jounin-san would teach him how to be good at all the writing and stuff so he could impress Sakura-chan and then he'd sit at the front and answer every question and know everything and not have to feel embarrassed ever!

'Not quite yet,' the Hokage said with a chuckle. 'You're still only a first year Academy student, Naruto, and Kohaku-san is still settling in. We'll see if we can sort something out.'

'I'd be happy to do some basics with him, Hokage-sama,' Kohaku-san said. She turned to Naruto and gave him another smile. 'I'm sure we'll see each other again, Naruto-kun. We can do some training next time.'

Naruto thought Kohaku-san was the best person _ever_. Except Jiji, obviously. And Teuchi-san.

Oh, ramen.

'Oh, I forgot to ask! Did'ya like the ramen, Kohaku-chan? It's the best, isn't it!' Naruto said happily.

'It was very, very good,' Kohaku-chan said, sounding all serious. Then she smiled _again_. 'Best ramen I've had in years. Thanks for introducing me to it, Naruto-kun.'

Naruto's chest puffed up. 'No problem! It's important to get the best ramen. You can't go to the lady on Shibuki street, she's mean and her ramen is bad! Never go there.'

'I won't, I promise.' Kohaku-lady gave Naruto a bow and Naruto laughed when he realised she was making a joke. 'It's Ichiraku or nothing.'

'That's what I say!' Naruto told her happily.

They finished walking through the park. Before she left, Kohaku-san knelt down so she could look Naruto in the eye. 'It was nice to meet you today, Naruto-kun. I hope we can be friends.' And she stuck out her fist, like he had seen some of the shinobi do, and Naruto felt his eyes burn as he gently bumped his knuckles to hers. He didn't really know what this meant, but he was sure he liked it. But he wouldn't cry! Crying was for sissies, and besides, he wasn't even sad!

'I'd like that, Lady-san. I mean, Kohaku-san!' He blinked through the momentary blur to find Kohaku-san smiling at him again.

'Until next time, then.' She stood up and gave Hokage-jiji a bow. 'Hokage-sama.'

And then, as she was walking away, she gave Naruto a wave goodbye!

'So, Naruto, what do you think? Should we let her join Konoha?'

'She's the best, Jiji! She loves ramen and she said she'd be my friend! Obviously she should join Konoha, dattebayo!' He exclaimed with as much emphasis as he could. 'Wait, if she's not from Konoha, where is she from?' He asked as he was led away, back to his apartment.

'That's a story for another time, Naruto, and I think Kohaku-san should be the one to tell you.'

'That's okay! She said we would see each other again so I'll just ask her next time!' He skipped ahead, trying to imitate the way shinobi jumped from place to place, hollering “best day ever!” as he went.


	5. Chapter 5

**Kohaku V**

'I have to say, this all makes absolutely no sense!' Kakashi commented, annoyingly upbeat, smiling with his single visible eye.

I snorted in amusement. 'Oh, shut up.' I stared at my latest attempt at a non-replicable explosive tag. I was trying to create a larger seal to act as the master that only needed to be part-transferred onto the tags, but all I'd managed to create so far was a goddamned mess. I pointed accusingly at the central array. 'This is the problem child,' I said. 'It's sticking, it just won't transfer.'

Kakashi rubbed his thin, overly thoughtful. 'Maybe _you're_ the problem child – are you sure you're that good at sealing?'

I narrowed my eyes at him. 'I can seal your balls back into your body, boy.'

Kakashi's eye widened as his hands moved protectively towards his crotch. Then he wrinkled his nose at me – I could tell, even under the mask. 'Boy?'

'Little pipsqueak.' When he didn't say anything, just wordlessly drew a line from the top of my head to his chin, I clarified with a roll of my eyes: 'you're younger than me.'

'Well, obviously. You're ancient. A relic from a bygone era,' Kakashi snarked.

'When you can't keep up with me, what does that make you?' I asked him, putting a matching amount of snide into my tone for show.

Kakashi was growing on me. Like a black mould. I liked that he wasn't afraid to refer to my displacement in time like that – well, no, liked wasn't quite the right word. Appreciated, maybe.

'Somebody not trying too hard. Don't want to strain myself,' he responded glibly as he extracted his book and collapsed onto the grass bonelessly, crinkling up the seal.

I huffed out an annoyed breath through my nose as I kicked him away, knowing as I did so that getting a rise out of me was exactly what he wanted. Kakashi lived to torment others, and messing up my seals was right up there on my personal annoyance scale. I sat as well, cross-legged with my hands linked under my chin.

'Staring at it won't make it work,' Kakashi told me after a few page flips.

'Reading porn won't either, so who are you to talk?'

'Kohaku- _chan_ ,' Kakashi said, clearly deeply affronted as he pressed his orange book lovingly to his chest, 'you cannot call the works of the great Jiraiya-sama merely _porn_.'

'Oho! Speak my name and I shall appear!' A man materialised in a waft of smoke, the one traditional geta he was standing on landing directly on my unfinished seal.

I didn't flinch, just leaned back slowly from the crotch that had appeared at eye level. I stared at Kakashi around an oddly bent leg. 'Did you just summon this strange man?'

An indignant squawk. 'Strange man? I am the great Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku!'

I glared up at the newcomer, hands twitching towards ruined attempt number sixty-seven.

'Saa, might want to move before she activates that, Jiraiya-san.'

'Oh?' Jiraiya looked down and seemed to realise that he wasn't standing on grass. He hopped off, still only on one foot.

'My apologies, beautiful maiden! I would never want to tarnish any work of yours!'

'Why are all Konoha shinobi so fucking weird? What's wrong with you all?' I griped as I collected up my seals and stood.

Silence fell, and I looked up to see Jiraiya staring at me. He switched to staring at Kakashi.

'Did she just—'

'Yep,' Kakashi said as he turned a page. 'Might want to get used to it.'

Jiraiya turned back to me, still staring at my arm where I'd sealed away my papers. 'They said you were another Seal Master, but I didn't really believe it,' he told me.

My eyebrows shot up my forehead, and then I groaned aloud. 'Oh my god, it's _you.'_ I was aghast.

I was _sure_ the Bingo Book entry on Jiraiya of the Sannin hadn't mentioned sealing. It would have caught my attention otherwise... surely? Maybe there was just too much to mention. He certainly seemed to have a lot going on, judging by his outfit.

'It is, indeed, me!' Jiraiya confirmed with a wide grin. 'Who am I, by the way?'

Kakashi started giggling in the background. I shot him a venomous glare.

'The one I've been waiting on for _weeks_. Apparently I can't do any missions until you've, uh, “verified” my sealing abilities.' I used air quotes to convey exactly how I felt about that. I crossed my arms. 'So, let's verify, _Seal Master_.'

'Of course, wouldn't want to keep you waiting,' Jiraiya told me with a lecherous grin.

I rolled my eyes, not bothering to remind him that he already had. 'So, where do we go?' I asked.

Jiraiya jerked a thumb over his shoulder, in the direction of the village centre. 'Hokage's office. He wants to watch, apparently.' He so clearly thought about making a joke, then seemed to remember he was speaking of his own Sensei and Hokage, and thought better of it with a grimace.

I pouted in the exact same exaggerated way Kakashi did and pretended not to see his wounded look at my mockery. 'What, no combat demo? I could've tested out so many things on you.' Then I held up a hand in warning. ' _Don't_.' The Sannin had been about to spout off another perverted comment, I could tell.

'Aw, why not, Kohaku-chan?' The _Great Toad Sage_ whined as we started tree-running back.

'Because I'd rather lick my own sweaty armpit,' I retorted flatly. Kakashi giggled again when Jiraiya acted out how hurt he was. I ignored both of them. 'So, what do you know about me?' I asked Jiraiya.

Jiraiya gave a careless shrug of his huge shoulders. 'Apparently, you're the real deal. An Uzumaki from Uzu, been in stasis these past twenty years thanks to some sealing shenanigans.'

'Sounds about right,' Kakashi confirmed cheerfully.

His good humour wasn't entirely faked – suspicious. Was he excited to get back on missions again? Or was it that he hoped Jiraiya had another so-bad-it-was-almost-funny porno novel to give him?

We arrived back in the Hokage's office to find Sarutobi neck-deep in paperwork and extremely relieved to have an excuse to drop it.

'Kohaku, I see you've met my former student, Jiraiya. It's a formality at this point, but I'd still like for you to demonstrate some sealing abilities to him. It will put to bed any lingering concerns of your identity, so we can get the ball rolling on formally inducting you into our forces.'

'Alright. So, what do you want to see?' I asked my examiner.

Jiraiya seemed to have dropped his dumber persona and was being very serious and pensive now. 'Well, what would you consider to be your top three seals?'

I ticked them off on my fingers. 'My disguise seals, my invisibility seal, and my best privacy seal. I'm also pretty proud of my storage scroll design, which Hokage-sama and Kakashi have already seen.'

Jiraiya looked a bit off balance. 'An invisibility seal?' He queried.

'Yes,' I confirmed, and then disappeared.

This never got old. Jiraiya was staring at the spot I'd disappeared, then at the Hokage, then back again. When he looked back to the Hokage for the second time, I used the opportunity to move behind Kakashi, who was reclining against the wall and reading his book with an amused little smirk, the absolute jerk.

'Oh, Daichi-kun, I never expected you to be this big!' I read aloud over his shoulder, breaking the seal and reappearing so Kakashi could see how much I enjoyed his mortification. His ears were red and pink was creeping up his cheekbones.

Still chuckling, I lifted up my hand and showed them the seal inked on my finger. Jiraiya squinted hard.

'It's tiny.'

'It is now. The activating matrix is much larger. I needed it in a place where it could be activated with minimal movement.'

Before I could be asked to draw out the matrix, I walked over to Sarutobi's desk. I cut my thumb on my storage pack and used my blood to draw a seal directly on the wood. Once I activated it, all of the ambient sound from the Village dimmed for a second, like dunking your head underwater, before it resumed.

'My privacy seal. It's essentially an illusion bubble, outsiders looking in see and hear what they expect to see – so in this case, I'd wager that a shinobi looking from the outside in will just see Hokage-sama sitting at his desk doing paperwork.'

Jiraiya gave an appreciative whistle. 'How big is the bubble?'

'Depends on how big I want it and my chakra input. Usually, it comes out at about two meters in diameter. Too big and it's more likely to be noticeable.'

Sarutobi looked intrigued as he bent over the seal. 'So if Kakashi were to leave the room now, and look in through the window – will he see what you described?'

'Well, that depends on what he'd expect. Try it.'

Kakashi went before Sarutobi had the chance to give the order. He reappeared at the window, his eye tracking something that wasn't there. We watched him perform a _kai_. Kakashi's reaction confirmed that it hadn't broken the illusion; I clarified to Jiraiya's questioning look as Kakashi returned: 'I said it functions like an illusion, but it can't be broken like one. It's not set on the observer, it's centred around the seal.'

Jiraiya stroked his chin thoughtfully. 'How long does it last?'

'This one will only last a day or so if left active. I have created versions to cover larger areas, which last only a few hours, and ones designed to last for the long-term but that necessarily constrains the illusion to a small-scale difference from reality. So a missing object, something like that.'

'How did you develop this, Kohaku-san? I'm intrigued.' The Hokage asked.

'Well, my starting point was my invisibly seal. Initially, I created a version that erased people inside the bubble altogether, but it had much more limited application than I'd hoped. It only really worked when people didn't expect anyone there, and most shinobi are too paranoid for that. The illusion was put under too much strain. So I modified it until it took advantage of observers' own preconceptions.'

'Did Kirin develop this seal with you?'

I gave a rueful roll of my shoulder. 'Pretty much all of my sealing work has Kirin's influence. This one, yes, I worked extensively on it with him.'

'I know that name,' Jiraiya muttered, sounding like he was already busy shifting through memories.

'Always wore a black haori, big scar on his left cheek. His hair was as white as yours, but luckily less abundant,' I supplied helpfully. I bit the inside of my cheek; even as talking about him triggered that stab of grief, I felt the need to say more – about how he wore his tanto on his back when he bothered to have it out, how he liked to wear a yukata rather than a uniform, how his messy nest of hair had always fallen over his headband and his eyes and he'd brush it out of the way. The scar up his ribs the length of my arm. His easy, ambling stride. How he'd laughed so rarely each one felt like a victory.

'I remember him. He fought like a demon,' Jiraiya said wondrously. 'You were his student?'

'Yes.'

Jiraiya's eyes widened. 'Wait. Did he call you Ko, sometimes?'

I scowled. Trust Jiraiya to remember that stupid nickname. 'I had an ill-advised haircut in my early teens.'

Jiraiya chuckled. 'I see. He was very fond of you.' He said it so gently.

I was absolutely not going to respond to that. I looked away. Luckily, Jiraiya turned to another victim. 'He knew your father, Kakashi-kun,' he said, like Kakashi was going to welcome any discussion of his forebear. It had taken exactly one mention of Sakumo's name for me to realise I should probably never bring him up again.

Honestly, _men_. So obtuse.

'Yes, I mentioned that before,' I said. Kakashi gave me a very quick, almost imperceptible nod of thanks. 'Weeks ago. When you were first supposed to turn up and didn't,' I finished waspishly.

'Kohaku-chan!' Jiraiya wailed as he went on about how he'd never meant to keep me waiting so long. I flapped my hand in dismissal, which only served to increase his dramatics.

'Back to the matter at hand,' Sarutobi said, looking amused. 'You also mentioned disguise seal, Kohaku?'

'Yes. This is the design I submitted to be granted the rank of Master.' I raised a hand to my shoulder. 'I actually have one that I call my blank sheet. Would you like me to activate it?' At the encouraging gesture from the Hokage, I sent a spike of chakra into my shoulder.

Unlike a henge, where the new face appeared in a puff of smoke that hid the transition, my features and body bubbled and slid slowly into their new forms. I shifted uncomfortably as my limbs lengthened. Jiraiya looked disturbed but fascinated as he stepped closer. He lifted the end of my braid where it hung over my shoulder and watched as my hair darkened into deep brown. It also shortened, which was an annoyingly itchy process, and my hairband slipped onto the floor.

'Incredible,' he said softly as he kneeled to retrieve it and hand it back to me. 'This is a real, physical transformation, isn't it?'

'Yes. But unlike a Henge which requires prodigious amounts of chakra to become physical, this instead requires a lot of prep and minimal chakra to keep active. It also cannot be detected by doujutsu. Not any that I know of, at least.'

At the last, Kakashi tipped up his headband and examined me. 'She's right.'

'During my last visit to Konoha, before, I worked with the Uchiha to improve several seal designs that incorporated illusory techniques. This one was among them.' The mood sobered at the mention of the Uchiha.

'And this seal remains active while you're unconscious?'

I nodded, watching Jiraiya circle me and examine how my clothes were now all slightly too short. 'It can be broken by deactivating it – which is keyed to my chakra signature – or by my chakra dropping low enough that it cannot be sustained.' At which point it hardly mattered.

Jiraiya was silent for a few seconds. 'I don't suppose there's a way to have it be sustained past death?'

'Not indefinitely, but you can store chakra in the seal that will get used up when it's no longer being circulated through the body. It can last days, maybe a couple of weeks. Any more than that and the seal will be overloaded when first set.'

'So it has a constant draw on your chakra? How much?'

I answered Kakashi's question with a shrug. 'Very little, but I'm an Uzumaki. I'm not sure outside of that frame of reference.'

There was digestive quiet for a little while.

'Can you base your disguise on a particular person?' Jiraiya asked eventually.

'Yes. I can impersonate a target or I can combine traits to create an entirely new face or impersonate the member of a Clan. Well, aside from Kekkei Genkai, obviously. In any case, the disguise has to be built from scratch and I have to very codify all of the desired traits. These are some of my most labour-intensive seals.'

'Can you create these seals for others?' Kakashi asked. His book was tucked away again – I would take that as a compliment.

'Yes, but I need both the start and end points, as such. It's not a one size fits all, build the disguise and anybody can put it on. It has to be custom made.'

Kakashi nodded thoughtfully. 'I see now why you're only trying to make mass-distribution seals that cannot be replicated. Nobody could reproduce this.'

I gave him a short smile. 'Even if someone got a trace of the active seal, it wouldn't be worth their time. You'd need to be an experienced sealer to make heads or tails of it, and even if you copied it perfectly onto someone else it wouldn't do anything. Unless they knew how to change the chakra signature component.'

Jiraiya asked to see the full seal array, so I rolled up my sleeve and exposed my upper shoulder. With some concentration, as I didn't want to apply too much chakra and damage the seal, the sealwork appeared. It was elaborate and despite having the smallest characters I could produce, it barely fit across my entire upper shoulder, curving around to my shoulder blade.

'Well, you're not wrong. Your style is distinct from any records of Uzumaki seals I've ever seen,' Jiraiya said as he gently held my arm and scrutinised the seal.

'I'd like to see those. I can probably provide some context on which schools or Masters produced them.'

'Granted,' Sarutobi said. 'So, Jiraiya – are you convinced, as I am, that this is a genuine Uzumaki?'

Jiraiya met my eyes as he straightened to his impressive height. 'Absolutely. Nobody but an Uzumaki could have made any of the seals we saw just now.' Jiraiya's gaze slid over my still-altered face. 'Welcome to Konoha, Uzumaki-san,' he said.

I nodded my thanks. I was actually getting a little emotional. It was nice to simply be welcomed rather than treated like I was dangerous or crazier than a bag of cats. Despite a poor introduction, Jiraiya was redeeming himself.

Of course, just as I thought that, Naruto burst into the office and I got to witness from a very close distance how Jiraiya's face flickered with shock, then guilt. I didn't look away from the sage as he tore his gaze away from Naruto, who had run right past us and up to Sarutobi's desk to chatter animatedly at him. Jiraiya grimaced uncomfortably under my scrutiny, and kept his back to Naruto as Sarutobi, in what must have been a rare display, told Naruto off and had him leave the office and wait in reception. I noted that Kakashi had evaporated into thin air at some point.

As soon as Naruto was gone, dejected and embarrassed with the proverbial tail between his legs, I deactivated the disguise seal and crossed my arms.

'What was that?' I asked, and watched with vindictive satisfaction as Jiraiya squirmed. I looked past him to the Hokage, who still looked a bit pissed off and normally I wouldn't have dared be so rude, but I was pretty furious. I'd been waiting for an opportunity to rip into him about this.

...To calmly discuss this. Like an adult. Like an adult seeking sanctuary in a foreign land. _Calmly_.

Jiraiya and Sarutobi exchanged a speaking look. Jiraiya jerked his chin.

'Do you recognise the name Uzumaki Kushina?' Sarutobi asked me.

I frowned. 'I don't believe so.'

Sarutobi nodded. 'Her transfer here was kept very covert.' He glanced at the other occupant of the room again before coming back to me. 'What do you know about what happened nine years ago?'

He was being very careful. My frown deepened. 'Only what Kakashi told me – the Kyuubi attacked the Village and had to be stopped by the Fourth Hokage, who died in the process.'

Sarutobi looked sad and old. 'Not quite.' He sighed deeply. 'What I'm about to tell you is an S class secret. Sharing it with anyone not already aware of it is treason. Do you understand?'

I gave him the traditional Uzumaki bow of fealty, my fist clenched tight on my chest.

'Kushina was the Kyuubi Jinchuuriki. Her seal was weakened by childbirth and the Kyuubi broke free and attacked the Village. She died sealing the Kyuubi away into the only possible candidate – the son she had borne only that day.'

I stayed silent.

'Kushina was brought to Konoha as a child for the express purpose of becoming Mito-sama's successor,' Jiraiya contributed, his voice low and wistful.

'Naruto doesn't know who mother is or what he carries. I'm doing my best to allow him a childhood,' Sarutobi said.

Oh, I got it now. 'Did you know that plenty of your own civilians call Naruto a monster to his face?' I ignored Jiraiya's startled response that made him turn towards his Hokage questioningly.

Sarutobi stiffened, the beginnings of anger creeping over his features. 'I'm aware that there are some... ignorant elements of the Village that treat Naruto with less respect than he deserves.'

It seemed both of us found this topic easily engaged our tempers. I resisted the urge to mutter anything inflammatory under my breath.

'Most people react to him that way, that I've seen. He doesn't have any friends. Parents won't let other kids play with him.' I shook my head, the montage in my mind turning my tone sad. 'With all due respect, Hokage-sama, it isn't working.' I saw that Sarutobi was gearing up to eviscerate me verbally, so I interrupted him before he could start. 'I'm not hiding who I am from him any longer. He needs a family.'

'You think you can be that, do you?' Jiraiya asked, for the first time seeming dangerous. 'What gives you the right?'

'Maybe the fact that I'm willing to try. You've apparently never even had time to introduce yourself to him,' I retaliated, keeping my tone as even as I could. It didn't even matter who Jiraiya was or should be to Naruto. The shame, how easily he rankled about this too, told me he was _somebody_ to Naruto. That he should have been somebody.

Jiraiya visibly bristled. 'I have important work outside the Village that I can't just drop.'

I sneered mentally. He was lying to himself, pretending he didn't have a choice. 'You could have dropped by every now and again. If it were important to you. You're here now, aren't you?' I rolled my shoulders, the movement exaggerated and jerky with my anger. 'In any case. What's done is done, and Naruto has been left on his own. He's desperate for attention. I can give him that, Village-bound as I am.'

Sarutobi sighed deeply, cutting off the other Seal Master's response. 'You do have that right. You are his only living relative.' Jiraiya still looked ready to argue, but Sarutobi pinned him with a look and he stayed quiet.

'I'm teaching him sealing,' I declared. 'It's his heritage.'

I didn't say it, but I resolved to provide Naruto with training, too. He didn't have the benefit of the full Clan treatment throughout his entire childhood, but I thought that Naruto's excess energy and enthusiasm would make up for some of the lost time. No Uzumaki was going to be left stranded like that. No fucking way. Over my dead body.

The conversation turned to other administrative matters that I gave my minimum attention. I wanted to get out of this office and go find Naruto. I thought through what to say, then resolved I was overthinking things. Naruto was an orphan and a pariah. What more needed to be said than “I'm your family, I'm an Uzumaki just like you”?

Family. One word with so much behind it.

I closed my eyes briefly and tried to clear my throat without derailing the conversation. I was going to be an actual blubbery mess if even just the thought of talking about it made me choke up.

'Kohaku-san?'

I refocused, forcefully pushing away any distracting thoughts. 'Yes, Hokage-sama?'

Sarutobi's eyes were kind. 'We were discussing the formal petition you will need to make to have the Uzumaki clan recognised. It will be some time from now, as much groundwork needs to be laid, but the primary steps are as follows...'

  
  


_**Interlude V** _

_'Oi, Kohaku!'_

_I slowed but didn’t turn. I knew that voice._

_'What?' I sighed into the blessedly empty air in front of me, knowing that any second now—yep, there she was. Suzuko careened to a stop in front of me, arms akimbo._

_'You promised to help me, don’t think I haven’t forgotten!'_

_'You, forget a favour someone owes you? Goddess forbid,' I said, clutching a hand over my chest in mock horror. Suzuko rolled her eyes, her hands now firmly planted on her hips as she pretended to be angry._

_'No, really. Hiro and Manami both backed out last minute and I am in desperate need of someone old enough to play with scissors. Desperate.'_

_I wagged a finger. 'You should never play with scissors, Suzuko-chan. What_ did _they teach you in the Academy?'_

_Suzuko threw her hands into the air, actually stomping her foot. 'Look, are you going to help me or not?' Her eyebrows furrowed menacingly._

_'Was there ever any doubt?' I asked mildly, taking her arm and leading her back towards her house with a graceful about-face._

_Suzuko snorted, but I knew she was grateful as she started chattering about her plans for the evening’s festivities. She was as desperate as anyone to have a good party and let loose a little bit. It wasn’t every day the last of your remaining school cohort turned sixteen and therefore of age to drink anywhere, rather than just the seedy old men bars that masqueraded as good shinobi hangouts._

_'Look, Sora is going to be there and—are you_ sure _you can’t convince Mitsuo to come?' She batted her eyelashes at me._

 _'Parties are not his scene. That won’t work on him either so don’t bother practicing with me,' I told her, halfway between annoyed that we were having this conversation_ again _and amused that she hadn’t given up hope. 'Why do you even want him there? He’s a total wet blanket.'_

_'He is not!' Suzuko exclaimed as she whacked me on the arm playfully. 'And you shouldn’t speak of a teammate that way.'_

_I rolled my eyes. 'Why, because I’ll hurt his fragile ego?'_

_'Because it damages the team dynamics!'_

_'It_ makes _our team dynamics,' I told her, snorting as she gave an exaggerated grimace and stuck out her tongue._

_'You’re impossible.'_

_I grinned at her. 'That’s going to be our name on record, you know. Team Impossible.'_

_'What happened to Team Densetsu?'_

_My cheeks warmed and I swatted her shoulder. 'Oi.'_

_Suzuko giggled. 'It's true! They say the latest dispatch of Kiri Books—'_

_'Yes, yes, that's enough teasing,' I grumbled. 'Do you want me to convince Mitsuo to come or not?'_

_'The legendary dragon himself? How could I_ not _want him there?'_

_I let out an exaggerated groan. 'He's a lizard at best. A small one, that lives in a pond.'_

_'Even so.'_

_'Yeah, yeah, I'll try. But_ no _harassing him,' I wagged another warning finger, but my face was serious. Suzuko's cheer dimmed momentarily, and then she lit up again._

_'I won't, I promise! So. Onto the actual preparations.' She stopped to do an excited little jig, impervious to the annoyed looks sent her way for disrupting the flow of traffic. 'You're on drinks duty!'_

_Oh, boy._

  
  


**Sarutobi**

'It's slow progress, but I'm confident we'll get there.' Inoichi finished his report and sat at attention, waiting for questions. Sarutobi rubbed his eyes, feeling old and tired. Become Hokage, they said, he grumbled under his breath.

'How long do you think it will take to reverse this memory seal?' He asked Inoichi, who raised his palms up in a “who knows” gesture.

'It will be some time. I am not a practiced fuinjutsu specialist and the sealwork is more complex than anything I have seen before, and we are only meeting weekly now. I would expect at least a few weeks.'

Sarutobi nodded and made clear he found the timeline acceptable. 'The implications of what could be hidden in there concern me. Keep at it.'

'Yes, Hokage-sama.'

'Do you have a copy of what you've transcribed so far?' Jiraiya spoke for the first time, having sat quietly in the corner until now. He took the roll Inoichi handed him and glanced over the paper inside.

'Working from the inside out, smart.' His once-student peered closer. 'This... has something familiar about it. I'll need to check in the Archives.' Jiraiya drew a quick impression on his own scroll as a reference and handed the original back.

'Do it,' Sarutobi confirmed. He glanced at Shikaku, who looked about to fall asleep, and Inoichi, who actually had reason to be exhausted. 'Good work, Inoichi. Shikaku, you are dismissed as well.'

Once they had filed out, Jiraiya sat at the table and looked at him. 'What?' He asked suspiciously.

'I have another task for you,' Sarutobi told him. 'In Village.'

'Alright, let's hear it.'

Sarutobi took his time preparing his pipe. 'It will take weeks, perhaps months.'

He kept his wince internal as Jiraiya reacted as poorly and with as much protest as he had expected. 'Not sure if I can do it right now, Sensei. I have fresh leads on Orochimaru for the first time in years. I need to chase them down, even if they go nowhere, I have to verify that.'

'Outside enemies are important, but we have issues here. Internal schisms, you might say.'

Jiraiya looked serious, then sighed, looking as old as Sarutobi felt. 'What is it?'

'Danzo. He hasn't disbanded Root as I ordered last year. Look into it.'

'I see.'

Sarutobi hadn't seen Jiraiya like this in a while. Angry, furious even, even as his mind chewed things over. At least the Sannin's anger at Danzo for keeping him from his leads would keep him focused, Sarutobi hoped.

Eventually, Jiraiya straightened. 'Fine, I'll use Kohaku as my excuse for why I'm staying. Wouldn't hurt to meet Naruto, either.'

Sarutobi hid his surprise, and then his instinct to smile. 

'Good.' Sarutobi nodded towards the door, because as much as he'd missed his old student, he was eager to be alone and have a nice relaxing smoke. Jiraiya left, still looking a bit surly, but he'd comply. Sarutobi knew he needed someone he could trust absolutely, and the list of names under that designation was disappointingly short. Jiraiya understood that, he knew.

He consulted his crystal ball and watched Kohaku. She was at the park again, with Naruto. They were feeding the ducks.

A finger drifted across surface of the device as he thought of the Uzumaki seal powering it underneath, inscribed by Mito-sama herself, and he sighed heavily. He fully supported the Uzumaki Clan becoming one of the Noble Clans of Konoha, but he resented that he had been forced into it by the politicking and hostility brewing between the other clans, particularly from the Hyuuga.

The loss of the Uchiha clan was a tragedy in every sense of the word, and Hiashi had wasted no time and was already manoeuvring to occupy the vacant political space. Sarutobi was sick of having a bunch of Clans more interested in getting one over each other than the prosperity of the Village. And if he were honest, he needed more Clan Heads he could rely on to support him. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio was all well and good, but sometimes motions needed more.

Sarutobi wondered if everyone had been so focused on the Uchiha's estrangement from the rest of the Village and what their splintering off could mean, they'd all forgotten that a Clan didn't need to separate or overthrow a Hokage to defy them. Sarutobi was only just beginning to grasp how many laws had quietly become invalid on Hyuuga clan compound ground. There was even rumour that they had started using the Branch Seals for punishment again. He'd allowed them too much leeway after that incident with the heir a few years ago, and Hizashi's willingness to challenge his brother was sorely missed. Without a senior branch member to speak up...

Sarutobi rubbed his eyes hard. He was too old for all of this. If he started thinking about every good nin he'd ever buried and every misstep he'd ever made, he'd be up all night.

At least it looked like Kohaku was going to agree. Sarutobi glanced again at the crystal ball, finding Kohaku and Naruto eating ice-creams on a park bench. He smiled sadly, knowing that his role in Naruto's life was shrinking ever smaller. Even as he knew it was the right outcome, he missed Naruto's bright-eyed innocence. Naruto would listen to Sarutobi's troubles and offer some laughably simple solution that just might work. Although, in this case Sarutobi was fairly sure Naruto's advice would just be to punch Hiashi and tell him the Hokage was the boss around here. Supremely tempting, but not quite the deft touch he was after, Sarutobi thought with amusement.

He put the crystal ball away. He had work to do.


	6. Chapter 6

**Kohaku VI**

I honestly wasn't sure if Kakashi genuinely thought that his avoidance of me and more importantly Naruto was obvious or not. It was admirably hard to tell with him, sometimes. I was used to him taking to rooftops or suddenly being hard of hearing, but about-facing and nearly walking straight into a telephone pole was a new one.

The real question was why he expected me not to mention it. Had everybody else just given up in the face of his antics? Didn't they know how this worked? It was like training a puppy. You ignored the bad behaviours and rewarded the good ones and, most importantly, made it clear you ran the show and you wouldn't do what they wanted just because they were yapping at you or nipping your heels or being, generally, a little shit. Better not to negotiate with terrorists.

It didn't seem to have occurred to Kakashi that I could render all of his efforts to avoid me outside of training null by simply walking the short distance from my front door to his. I'd counted – it was ten paces.

He stared down at me, clearly unsure whether he wanted to let me in or not. Unfortunately for him, he'd taken his sweet time in making the decision to answer the door and my patience had dwindled to critically low levels.

Shouldering past him, I navigated my way into the kitchen and sat at the table.

'Uh, can I help you?'

'You can make tea. That's usually how you welcome guests.'

Kakashi grumbled something about me being uninvited, which I ignored. I sat quietly, rehearsing some of the things I needed to make sure got said today.

My training partner plunked himself down opposite me as my beverage appeared. I wrapped my hands around it and inhaled the steam.

'I need someone to explain to me what is going on with Naruto. Everyone I've met knows who he is, even if they won't acknowledge that fact or him. The kid only seems to know two people, and one of them is the Hokage.'

Kakashi looked so deeply uncomfortable, I felt a bit bad for him. He straightened from his slouch and sat in proper seiza.

'He's an orphan, it's not unusual for him to have few social acquaintances amongst adults,' he said eventually.

I hummed. 'That might placate me, if he had any friends his own age. Except, the prejudice against him from adults – which, by the way, includes some shops refusing to sell to him and people spitting at him in the streets – seems to have been taught to every single child in Konoha. He's not allowed to play with other children.' Kakashi said nothing, just looked a bit sad and also like he was about to throw himself out a window to escape me. 'See, I have to wonder, what the fuck was Sarutobi _thinking_ introducing me to the only other living Uzumaki, surely _knowing_ that I would see him being treated like this.' My hands tightened around my mug and it creaked ominously. 'But what makes me wonder even more, is that some people here clearly care about Naruto. Some very important people of high standing in Konoha that could really make a difference for him. And yet... it seems that they've all said nothing, and most of them have never even bothered to let this isolated orphan know that they exist.' I looked Kakashi dead in the eye – or would have, if he hadn't been studiously looking away. 'Jiraiya had some bullshit excuse about being stationed outside the Village. What's yours?'

Kakashi ducked his head and kept his head low. He leaned forward, his shoulders hunched like he was in actual pain.

'I'm.... I don't...' Kakashi muttered, and trailed off. He cleared his throat. His mask shifted like he had opened his mouth and closed it again.

Had _nobody_ had this conversation in nearly ten years?

'It seems like everyone cares, just not enough for it to outshine their own problems. Konoha shinobi are so emotionally maladjusted, you know? It's so strange to me.' I massaged my neck, catching Kakashi's eye and frowning at what I saw there. I raised an eyebrow in question.

'You think Uzu shinobi had it better?'

I scoffed. 'Are you kidding? Most of us were related, and those that weren't were refugees or allied minor clans welcomed as our own. We were family. Everyone had _someone_ in Uzu, usually multiple someones, to lean on and keep their head on straight.'

Kakashi scoffed at me right back. 'Things gone always seem better than they actually were.'

I squinted at him, unsure if he really believed that. 'To an extent, yes,' I admitted slowly. 'But there's definitely truth to what I'm saying. There's just no way a child would have been abandoned like Naruto has been.'

I got a shrug in response. Kakashi seemed to have decided to survive this conversation by trying to have it roll off his back. At least he was still here.

We sat in silence for a little while.

Perhaps it was stupid, or naïve, but some part of me thought that if I could just find the right words, the right _story_...

'When my parents died, I was eleven.' I ignored how Kakashi's shoulders immediately tensed at the new topic. 'I was the last in my team to become an orphan. Satoshi's mother died in childbirth and his father died on a mission when he was too young to remember him. Mitsuo was a refugee from Kiri and the only one of his family to make it.' I blinked hard. I was not going to cry just saying their names. I was not going to cry because it was already harder to remember what they looked like, clear images blurring into the hazy memories of a past life. I cleared my throat awkwardly and continued. 'We all moved into my Sensei's house, and I had several other people I could have lived with if I didn't want to do that. My aunt, my godparents, even my best friend's parents offered to take me in. Naruto's situation, and I mean the part he doesn't seem to have anyone he can consider his family, is unthinkable to me. Particularly when the rest of Konoha treats him like shit.' I paused. 'You don't, you know, none of you Konoha shinobi _seem_ that happy. I know us Uzumaki are obnoxious and we vomit sunshine and all that, but...' I shifted in discomfort. I couldn't think of how to word my next thought without it coming out wrong and deeply offensive.

Before I could get there, Kakashi's head reared back and I saw his face was tight with anger, his eye narrowed in challenge.

Oh, boy.

'Was it worth it?' His words whipped out harsh and quick.

'Was what worth it?'

'Your big happy family. You've lost them all in the end – was it worth it?'

My anger spiked and showed on my face before I could control it. ' _Yes_ ,' I said forcefully. 'Of course it is, and how much I miss them now is a reflection of how lucky I was to have them in the first place. Family is what makes life worth living! What gets us through the day. Everyone needs—'

Kakashi scoffed. 'Not all of us _have_ a family to make life worth it, to get through the day.'

There was something there, lurking in the bitterness of his words, but I was too fucking angry myself to care.

'You can _find_ family! Make one! My team was my family. Just because you start off alone doesn't mean things have to stay that way. Just because Naruto is alone now—!'

'And what if he loses you?' Kakashi asks, his voice dangerous and sharp. 'When then? Then he's back to being alone, but knowing what having a family is like. You'll have just hurt him _more_ , in the end.'

I stared at him and realised that perhaps we weren't talking about Naruto at all. I leaned forward myself and spoke very deliberately. ' _As if_ only having memories is worse than never having a family, never loving anyone at all. To avoid caring about people because you're afraid of losing them is _cowardice_.'

My words hit their mark, and Kakashi's eyes went flat and cold. The air tasted a little of ozone. 'You've made your point. You can leave now.'

I left. There wasn't any point discussing things any with him further.

Two hours later I was still wailing on some poor tree in a training ground. Even after my hands started bleeding, I was still so angry and full of unresolved tension. The gall of someone trying to tell _me_ about loss, about grief. I punched the tree again, relishing in the pain of impact on my knuckles. How fucking dare he.

I choked up and realised the tears I had suppressed earlier had risen up. There was no use bottling it in now. I sat down under my tree and wrapped my arms around my knees, tucking my face into the crook of my elbow. I cried it out, my mind tumbling through memory after memory of familiar faces and smiles I would never see again. I remembered what it had been like, losing my parents and feeling like the world hadn't realised it was supposed to stop turning. It couldn't simply _go on_. Not fair, not right. But it had, and I'd had my boys to support me and help me pick up the threads of a new life. I missed home so much, my chest ached just thinking about it.

I didn't deserve to be the only one still here. Kirin and Satoshi and Mitsuo should have all been here. I'd been with them over half my life, and it frightened me to think I might have many more years than that to traverse without them with me.

Once the sun had set and my tears were spent, I went home.

Well, not quite. I perched on a nearby roof and observed at the Anbu crouched in the fire exit below me, who thought that I'd gone back into my apartment and spent the last few hours hate-watching a crappy film. They had spent what must have been a riveting few hours observing my clone's theatrics. I slowly and carefully climbed down the stairs. I crouched on the railing directly above him. Nothing. I smiled viciously.

I lowered my palm so it hovered over the back of his head and concentrated hard as I formed handseals with my free hand. A seal imprinted on his skull, hidden nicely under his dark hair. I released a silent breath of relief – sealing from a distance took an immense amount of concentration and practice, and I didn't often have reason to do it. Besides, it was highly guarded knowledge that it was even possible. Kiri had gotten irritated enough at their bloodline users resurfacing under our banner, let alone being told that they didn't need to become Seal Masters themselves to help us revolutionise sealing.

Mitsuo had been skilled enough at his family's practice of one handed signs to do two seals at once, one in each hand. He'd only ever demonstrated it up against Kiri-nin, just to see them squirm. It had given him a vicious kind of pleasure, to get in their faces and show them what could become of someone they'd tried to throw away.

He'd approve, I thought with a smile as I considered my work.

I climbed back up to the roof and hopped across so I could slip back into my apartment through an open window. Water-clone me chucked the rest of her popcorn in disgust at the little television screen as a particularly terrible scene reached its climax. She huffed in disgust and abandoned the living room, heading into the shower. I followed and deactivated my invisibility seal as the dribbles of water of another me washed down the drain.

At least something productive had happened today, I mused as I soaped off the sweat and splinters. The tracking seal I had placed on my watcher would finally tell me where the hell he went when he was done sitting on railings like a gargoyle with probably really bad back pain.

At some point he passed a barrier that concealed him from my senses. If there'd been a pool, I would have bet a whole load of money on it not being the Hokage's office.

But we would see soon enough.

  
  


_**Interlude VI** _

_'Kohaku, you have got to be kidding me,' Mitsuo bit out. He slapped down a pair of cards with a glare. The effect was somewhat ruined by the top card sliding off the cushion onto the floor._

_'Nope!' I told him, overly cheerful as I put down my own card and shifted to lean back against the window. 'It's all been arranged, confirmed, set in stone, et cetera. You're coming to the party tonight.'_

_'No.'_

_'Yes.'_

_Satoshi leaned his head around the doorway, dripping wet hair flicking droplets everywhere as he looked between us. 'Terrible idea.'_

_'It won't be that bad, you're being dramatic,' I declared breezily as I jumped up to rummage through Mitsuo's wardrobe. 'Wear this!' I decreed, laying it out on the bed. 'This blue goes best with your eyes,' I reported happily as I patted the shirt._

_Mitsuo was miming having an aneurysm._

_I took the opportunity to rummage around for anything I might like to borrow. I had a new white skirt that I could pair with one of his other blue shirts._

_'Stop stealing my clothes.'_

_'You'll get them back!'_

_In unison, both boys protested loudly that I was a dirty liar._

_I huffed. 'Okay, maybe you won't, but surely you won't miss_ one _blue shirt. You have about sixty!' I posed next to the clothes rail, hands waving in demonstration. I did a quick count. 'Sixty-two!'_

_'I'm going to start taking your things,' Sato promised. 'I could rock tight shorts.' He popped out a leg and pretended to examine his manicure._

_Not dignifying that with a response, I closed the wardrobe with a snap, purloined shirt safely sealed away in my back pouch. 'Fine. But_ you _should definitely wear this one,' I reaffirmed, picking the shirt up from the bed and fluttering it in Mitsuo's direction._

_Satoshi, trapping my other teammate in the room by taking up just about all of the doorway, looked supremely amused at Mitsuo's suffering. 'Ko, Suzuko's party was two years ago and people still talk about what a disaster it was. If he comes he'll just embarrass you in front of all our friends just like last time. What were you thinking?'_

_I drooped theatrically back into my place at the window seat. 'Why did you have to remind me.'_

_'Or, he would, if I weren't coming along too to keep him in line.'_

_I spun in place and gave Satoshi a big grin and a double thumbs up. 'You're the best, Sato!' I bit my lip so I wouldn't giggle._

_'Stop making fun of me,' Mitsuo said to the ceiling, where his eyes had been glued in some kind of prayer for mercy for the last few minutes. 'You're both such assholes.'_

_'We're all assholes here,' Satoshi said sagely before swanning off with an exaggerated sway of his hips, gyrating his derriere under his towel, and Mitsuo glared at me when my laughter escaped._

_I picked my hand back up and flicked the card Mitsuo had tried to sneak into it at his forehead. 'Nice try. Give me my king back.'_

_'Consider it payment. I'll come, but you're doing the clean up tomorrow. And_ no _matchmaking.'_

_'Deal!' I said happily as we shook hands. 'I forfeit. Now go shower!'_

_Mitsuo sighed but complied, even as he muttered under his breath at the injustice of having to share a bathroom with “those two morons” instead of getting his own private suite like Sensei._

  
  


**Ibiki**

Ibiki had started off his little observational mission fairly relaxed, curious. He had had an itch he needed to scratch. An unanswered question, if you will.

He'd wanted to observe more of their prisoner – although he supposed she wasn't that any longer. It was obvious to him that the Hokage had made up his mind about what to do with her. It was only a matter of time before she got her own leaf-imprinted headband. Not that Ibiki had advised otherwise.

Nevertheless, he was, in a word, concerned.

'It's absolutely reprehensible, the way he's treated.' Uzumaki had her arms crossed and her brows low on her face. She either didn't know or was ignoring the audience and had her gaze unwaveringly on Inoichi, who was embarrassed and shamed but hiding it well. 'Either they won't sell to him at all or they give him their worst stock, sometimes even at a mark-up.'

Inoichi cleared his throat but didn't seem to have anything to say. He'd tried, once, to defend the Village-at-large by saying that Naruto pulled pranks, to which Kohaku had only needed to retort that Naruto was a child with literally no parental guidance whose worst crime was getting paint on things.

Ibiki wondered if Kohaku had already figured out who Naruto was. It was ballsy, so openly decrying his treatment, but maybe she just didn't care. Or maybe she didn't know – just because she knew seals, didn't mean she knew jack shit about Jinchuuriki. Ibiki couldn't tell, but that wasn't what was worrying him.

Anko dropped another finished dango stick on the table. He shot her a look and she rolled her eyes and flicked it onto the plate.

'So, what's the deal here? You interrogated her, right?'

Ibiki raised one massive shoulder and let it drop. 'We called it an entry interview.' Anko huffed out a laugh at that and gestured for him to go on. 'Nothing outside of what I expected from a catastrophe survivor. Emotionally tense, neurotic, wants to drive herself over the edge working too hard, extremely protective of any other survivors.' Ibiki lifted a finger and stabbed through the observation mirror to the redhead sat on the other side, who was still on a diatribe about Naruto. 'We're seeing that last one in action right now. The blond Uzumaki brat didn't survive Uzu's fall, but he might as well have, the way she sees it.'

'So... what's the problem?' As irreverent as Anko was, she was also irritatingly observant. It made her an excellent T&I agent and the occasional pain in his backside. He warned her off with a look and stayed silent the rest of the interview with Inoichi, giving a curt wave goodbye when Anko declared he'd sucked all the fun out of it and slunk out of the room. He glared at the trash she'd left behind.

He waited a full two minutes after Kohaku and Inoichi had left before he followed suit. He went directly to the Hokage, who took his appearance at the door with the ill grace of someone who knew to expect poor news.

'What now?' Sarutobi sighed.

'She's a flight risk.' Ibiki said as he strode up to the desk. 'But more importantly, she'd want to take Naruto with her. It was a mistake introducing them so soon.' There was no rebuke in his tone, but there didn't need to be.

Sarutobi's face went still. 'She knows he's the Jinchuuriki. You think she'd kidnap him?'

Ibiki gave his Hokage a look of dismay at that first piece of information, then decided not to comment on it. What was done, was done. 'You think she'd need to? She just spent the last half hour explaining Konoha's every failing in looking after that kid to Inoichi.'

His leader went quiet and contemplative, turning towards the window and staring at the Jounin barracks. 'And she's not wrong,' the Hokage eventually commented with a sigh. 'Something needs to change before Naruto's attachment to her becomes stronger than his attachment to the Village.'

Ibiki tilted his head. Did he really not see it? 'Before it becomes stronger than his attachment to _you_.'

Sarutobi tried to hide his wince. Ibiki realised that Sarutobi had known perfectly well that Naruto's strongest bond was with himself.

'Well, changing the shitty attitude of every Konoha civilian is going to take time. The shortcut is to have the elder Uzumaki form more ties to the Village. She's clinging to Naruto. She can't cling to Inoichi and Kakashi.' Ibiki received a look from his Hokage and gave into the impulse to gaze skyward. Was there really a question about this? 'One is her handler and the other is an emotionally stunted recluse.'

Sarutobi grunted in annoyance.

'I'll leave figuring out how to do that to those with a softer touch. But we need to address this now, before it gets worse,' Ibiki advised, his leather coat squeaking as he crossed his arms. He took the Hokage's sigh of exasperation as acknowledgement.

'You have no doubts on her identity?' Sarutobi asked after a few moments.

Ibiki's brow creased. He had done the interview, written the report, been debriefed by the Hokage personally on the contents of said report. There shouldn't have been any space left for uncertainty over his conclusions. 'She believes she is who she says she is, and we have no reason not to have faith in Yamanaka techniques that have never failed us before. Her desire to join the Village is genuine. The concern is whether her desire to look after Naruto will supersede that.'

'I understand, Ibiki. My concern is that we mishandle her again. She has been very forgiving about the suffering we inflicted on her when she first arrived here. I will not make another rash decision.'

Ibiki thought that the decision to allow Danzo to get his way was nothing to do with rashness and everything to do with being too tired to fight the Councillor on yet another issue. Ibiki said nothing.

'If that's all,' Sarutobi said, already turning away.

Ibiki returned to HQ. He moved through the pens towards his office, catching sight of Anko with her feet up on his newest recruit's desk. She was chattering, sharp smile firmly in place as she hazed the newbie, who looked to be taking it as well as anyone from Admin ever did.

Huh, well there was a thought. Anko was abrasive, but she did at least have friends. Perhaps he'd direct her Kohaku's way. It was better than leaving her socialisation to _Kakashi_ , of all people.


End file.
